After more than a year of collaboration between Manhattan High students and the Museum of Art + Light, a reception on April 16 marks the opening of an exhibition called “Planet Oket’Ra: Manifestations of a Mirrored Earth.” This temporary exhibition is the culmination of a year-long multifaceted collaboration between MHS students, faculty and MoA+L staff under the Connecting Creativity initiative.
Launched in the fall of 2024, the project began with a selection process where students were recommended by MHS’s art and Career and Technical Education department teachers. Students were then interviewed for the opportunity to build a museum-grade exhibition from the ground up. Seven students were chosen for the project based on skills in areas such as 3-D art/sculpture, 2-D art and digital animation. Seniors Cade Strother, Makenna Dogson, Olivia Mecseri and Francesca Poggi-Corradini and juniors Layla Schwabauer, Daniel Wei and Mulisa Ndou came together to create the wide range of mediums on display for the extraterrestrial exhibition.
“It’s kind of mirroring any kind of process with a living artist who’s creating an installation-based project as an exhibition,” said Kristy Peterson, VP of Learning, Engagement and Visitor Experiences at the MOA+L. “The museum supported that effort and helped guide the process and make sure students knew how museums work with professional artists, so we’re paralleling that process. In a way, preparing them for the more professional [level].”
The process has really helped the students prepare for the work field and post-secondary education.
“I think it’s been a big learning curve and I’m glad I went through it since I’m going to art school,” Mecseri said. “And I think it could help me be more prepared for that.”
Student Overcame many obstacles.
“I took a long time to finish the first [piece], and making sure the designs are good,” Poggi-Corradini said. “I guess a lot of it was in the beginning, like brainstorming processes, so learning how to use paint was good.”
The purpose of the exhibition is to appeal to a wide range of people, hoping to convey the beauty of nature through this mirrored manifestation of Earth.“I want [people] to see the beauty of nature, so they know what can be lost in real life,” Strother said.
“Planet Oket’ra” represents a first-of-its-kind milestone for both the museum and the school district and will remain on display at MoA+L April 16-May 31 with an opening reception at 5:30 p.m. on April 16. Later this spring applications will open for next year’s group of artists.
“It’s true collaboration,” Peterson said.
