Macy Gallery at Teachers College is featuring the artwork of Harlem high school students in its latest exhibition titled “Harlem Expressions: TRUCE Youth Artists Explore Community.”

The exhibition, which runs through April 3, includes some 20 acrylic sheet shapes, sculptures and a video created by the students as reflections of their lives in Harlem. Harlem Expressions is a series of community-based art projects involving the youth organization TRUCE (The Renaissance University of Community Education), an award-winning media literacy and arts education program for adolescents that is a division of the Harlem Children’s Zone.

TRUCE works with about 150 adolescents in an effort to foster academic growth and career readiness through the use of the arts, media and multimedia technology. The students engage in a variety of hands-on projects, including such things as producing an award-winning cable TV program featuring poetry and documentaries, to painting murals.

In the fall, the students and staff at TRUCE selected the theme of “Made in Harlem,” focusing on the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the famed Upper Manhattan community. The art students then began a series of assignments designed to explore their lives and their community. During their investigations, they created shapes as way to examine their everyday lives. Those shapes were then developed into the acrylic sculptures—some of which include text and images—on display at Macy Gallery.

Macy Gallery is located on the fourth floor of Macy Hall and is open to the public. The gallery is part of the Art and Art Education Program of the Department of Arts and Humanities at Teachers College.

Published Wednesday, Apr. 1, 2009