One of the best things about going to schools and universities in this area is the access students have to opportunities outside of school. 17-year-old student Sophia Becker is part of a program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on North Broad Street.
"I am on PAFA's youth council," said Becker. "This year, PAFA was gifted with 17 Helen Frankenthaler prints from their New York foundation and we were tasked with curating that exhibition and finding a way to make it really engaging and interesting for people. We wrote the wall text ourselves and came up with the ideas and the layout for the entire show."
Students come from schools all over the area and this is just one of the many outreach programs offered at museums.
Kristina Murray, PAFA's teen programs coordinator, explained further, "The exhibit includes the 17 gifts, and we have one of her paintings in our collection, so that is included as well. Helen Frankenthaler, whose career spanned six decades, has long been recognized as one of the great American artists of the twentieth century. She is widely credited for her pivotal role in the transition from abstract expressionism to color field painting."
The main requirement for students is an interest in art.
"It's all about exposing students to the art world," Murray continued. "We have a student docent program, we take time to do some career exploration and we will go to other museums and meet other curators."
The exhibit runs through April 12.