Tufts' Eliot-Pearson Children's School has teamed up with the Africana Center and the Office of Institutional Diversity (OID) to display a traveling art exhibit designed to educate children about diverse families.
The exhibit, which opened yesterday, is called "In Our Family: Portraits of All Kinds of Families." It features photographs of families, each accompanied by a write-up about the pictured family and a large quotation from a family member.
The photos and text are displayed along two facing walls in a hallway of the Children's School, a combined preschool and elementary school that serves as a laboratory facility for the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development.
The exhibit is designed so that both adults and children can view each featured piece easily. The pictures and text on one of the walls are at the eye level of a preschooler, while the items on the opposite wall are at an adult's level of vision.
One of the families featured in the exhibit consists of a Native American single mother and her 14-year-old son who live together on a reservation. Another is a black lesbian couple raising a twin boy and girl. Yet one more family the exhibit includes is a mother, father and two sons - all of whom are deaf.
A study group consisting of Eliot-Pearson parents and teachers made the decision to bring the exhibit to Tufts. The group examines "diverse families and how we can support our kids' [understanding of] diverse families," teacher Heidi Given, whose child attended the school, said.
A parent in the diversity study group noticed the exhibit on display elsewhere and suggested that Tufts bring it to the Eliot-Pearson school.
"One of the parents in the group had seen the exhibit ... It travels all over the country, but the company that puts it out is based in western Massachusetts," said teacher Kirkland La Rue, a graduate student in the Department of Child Development.
Aside from the Children's School, the Africana Center and the OID, contributions for the event were also received from the Department of Child Development and the Arts, Sciences and Engineering Diversity Fund.
"They all contributed to make sure it was able to come," Children's School Coordinator Josephine Carbonaro said.
Carbonaro hopes people other than those directly involved with the Children's School will come to see the exhibit. "We welcome the whole community to come and look at it," she said.
The exhibit will be shown at the school, which is located at 105 College Ave., on weekdays through April 9.
