Leadership Without Limits!

Last month, the Georgia Museum of Art was thrilled to partner with Leadership ¡Sin Limites! (LSL), a University of Georgia J.W. Fanning Institute statewide youth leadership program for high school students, ages 15 to 18, interested in Latino culture and building leadership skills. LSL, a seven day program, focuses on offering students a cohesive understanding of issues surrounding today’s Latino populations, as well as a concentration on individual leadership styles and how to effect change in their home communities. The Fanning Institute collaborates with several academic and student affairs departments to create a college campus experience for the participants, including the museum.

The 20 participants, along with five UGA college mentors, visited the museum for a 2-hour special program to gain insight into fine arts and self-expression. The first part of the workshop consisted of a tour of the galleries, with a special focus on portraiture. After an introduction to portraits as viewers, the group was challenged to apply their new knowledge and become artists themselves. The group explored how symbols and other non-written mediums could contribute to nontraditional representation and applied these concepts to create their own collage portraits.

The museum’s staff is more than enthusiastic to participate in a program so closely paralleled with its own mission: to support and promote teaching, research and service.