On April 9th, Studio 1200 collaborated with Kent Place School in Summit, NJ, as it hosted Global Perspectives Day. This year’s theme was “Homes and Homelessness” and the full-day event included reflective discussions, hands-on activities, and guest speakers, all of whom have experienced homelessness.
Studio 1200 worked with the student body from all three divisions, comprised of over 600 girls in grades K-12, on the “building” portion of the day. Foundations were built up of oatmeal boxes that were decorated with imagery of what home means, and “walls” were created with photographs and quotes about the value of home and community. The day concluded with the unveiling of the student-created installation in the Field House, which was greeted with ooh’s and ah’s by the girls as they arrived.
The message for our project was about the meaning of home. “Home” is not simply the walls and the roof that protect us from the weather, but also the sense of community that is created when we work together to create something larger than ourselves. By understanding and appreciating what it takes to create a feeling of home, we can then start to understand how important it is to try to help those that don’t have that feeling of home in their lives. As we left Perspectives Day, and the hundreds of oatmeal boxes made their way to the local food pantries to be shared with people less fortunate, we were reminded how lucky we are to have special places in our community, like Kent Place, that we can call “Home”.