Pulitzer Center Update April 17, 2024
Student Symposium Opens Eighth Annual Everyday DC Exhibition
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“When people think of D.C., some think it’s clean, nice, a place of business where people get things done. Other people think D.C. is horrible, dangerous, dirty, and chaotic. Both of these things can be true, but that is not all there is to it. In the news, people just see the major things on the surface.
These pictures show what is behind the curtain, what is unseen. They show the schools where we get our knowledge, the people we connect with, and the places we love. They show what we’re thankful for: Our everyday D.C.”—Excerpt from the opening text of the the 2024 Everyday DC Student Photography Exhibition, written by 6th and 8th grade student curators from Excel Academy.
The eighth annual Everyday DC student photography exhibition opened on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at the Charles Sumner Museum in Washington, D.C., with a symposium of over 70 students from three middle schools and an opening reception for the public.
The exhibition presents a visual narrative of Washington, D.C., through the eyes of over 150 D.C. students from 10 public middle schools in all four quadrants of the city. It is the culmination of a multi-week photojournalism Cornerstone unit designed by the Pulitzer Center and D.C. Public Schools (DCPS).
Inspired by the Center-supported Everyday Africa project, the Everyday DC unit plan challenges students to analyze how Washington, D.C., is portrayed in the media, and how they can compose images that more accurately visualize their everyday experiences.
The unit, which is primarily taught by DCPS visual arts teachers and is supported by Pulitzer Center staff and journalist grantees, asks students to consider how images can influence public perception of a place and how they can combat dominant media stereotypes about their city by telling their own stories. Students then learn photography, caption writing, and curation skills that they apply to composing their own images for exhibition in a public exhibition.
Pulitzer Center K-12 Education staff wrote the unit plan in 2016 in partnership with the visual arts team at DCPS to align with their new arts framework, and the unit has been shared with nearly 2,000 students from over 15 D.C. public middle schools over the past eight years. This year’s exhibition was curated by nine students from Excel Academy.
“As curators, our job was to look through all of the pictures, set up the pictures in groups, look for themes, and create our introductory speech,” wrote curator A’Lilla M. in her opening remarks for the exhibition’s opening. "Sometimes pictures look good but they might not fit in with a theme, so you have to make hard choices. I put together a black and white picture group showing nature and where people live. You can see it on the first floor!”
Spotlight On Our First Everyday DC Student Symposium
For the first time, Everyday DC opened with a symposium that gathered over 70 students from three middle schools who had completed the Everyday DC project. Students started by reflecting on how accurately think everyday life in D.C. is presented in the media and what they think the impact of their exhibition could be in helping people understand how they see D.C.
Students then connected with Pulitzer Center grantee Ashonti Ford to discuss the ways they could apply the visual storytelling skills they learned in the unit to a career in journalism. Ford started by describing the ways she saw students using compelling photography techniques throughout the exhibit to share what is important to them. She then reflected on the importance of telling underreported stories and how students could continue to use their photography skills to share stories from their communities. Students asked Ford about her routine, the challenges she has faced as a journalist, and why she decided to become a journalist. They also asked her to point out her favorite pictures from the exhibition.
Next, students broke into groups to explore the Everyday DC exhibition. Students used post-it notes in each room of the exhibition to tag the photos they were most drawn to, the photos that most connected to their everyday lives, and the photos that most surprised them. Facilitators from Pulitzer Center and DCPS then worked with students to think more about the photos they tagged and evaluate what they thought the public would learn about D.C. from these photos.
The event concluded with a guided reflection on what students thought the public could learn about D.C. from their exhibition.
“I hope they learn that students' lives are different and difficult,” Ashley, a student from MacFarland Middle School, wrote in her closing survey.
“DC has nice places and it's nicer than ya'll think,” Excel Academy student D’Vine wrote in her closing survey.
The graphic below captures words that students used to describe the exhibition.
“Thank you for yesterday's event,” wrote MacFarland Middle School visual arts teacher Sarah Lewand in an email after the student symposium. “Some feedback that I heard: Students really enjoyed seeing photojournalism in action.”
“My students had an excellent time both with the project and also at the symposium,” wrote Hardy Middle School visual arts teacher Louisa Ballinger in an email following the event. “One of my students told me that seeing his photo in an exhibition was his favorite memory of the school year so far!”
The “Everyday DC” project is funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The project is also supported by the Charles Sumner School Museum & Archives, which generously donated the space for the exhibition.
The exhibition is open to the public every Monday to Friday, March 30 through June 7, from 10:00am to 4:00pm. Admission is free. For more information about the Everyday DC unit plan and exhibition, contact [email protected].
