Elm Lawn Elementary School

What started as a practical solution in one classroom has grown into a District-wide celebration of student creativity.

At Kromrey Middle School, art teacher Carrie Stahl has long faced a challenge familiar to many educators: there simply is not enough space to display all the incredible artwork students create throughout the year. Rather than letting those limitations hold students back, she found a creative workaround.

“It’s hard to hang all the artwork,” Carrie shared. “So I’ve had a virtual gallery for years, displaying student work on screens and on our website.”

That idea became the spark for something much bigger.

During a virtual K–12 art teacher collaboration, educators across the District began discussing the idea of hosting a District-wide art show. While the vision was exciting, the logistics quickly became complicated. Transporting artwork, coordinating displays, and ensuring representation from every school presented real challenges.

That is when Stahl found a different approach: why not make the entire show virtual?

The result is a District-wide virtual art gallery that features student work from every school and every grade level. Instead of being limited by space, the gallery allows the full range of student creativity to be shared in one place with families and the broader community.

Across the District, students are exploring a wide variety of artistic mediums.

“We teach a variety of mediums that include clay, sculpture, painting, and drawing, both 2D and 3D art,” Carrie explained.

For Carrie, one of the most meaningful parts of the virtual show is the opportunity to see the full K–12 experience come to life.

“It’s fun for me to see what they are doing in elementary school. They are just amazing,” she said. “And it’s exciting to see what other teachers are doing too. We all have the same job, but every year the work is different.”

The virtual format not only makes the artwork more accessible, but it is also helping expand its reach beyond school walls.

At Middleton High School, art teacher Peter Ludt has partnered with the city to feature student artwork from the gallery on a community billboard, bringing student creativity into the public eye in a whole new way. The District’s Education Foundation is also supporting the effort by turning student artwork into posters and thank-you cards, allowing community members to experience and share in that creativity.

These efforts highlight something Carrie sees every day in her classroom.

“Kids do amazing things in art class,” she said. “But many people don’t get to see it.”

The virtual art show is helping change that by making student work visible, accessible, and celebrated across the entire community.

It is also inspiring future artists and educators. One example is Violet Goscha, a former student who is now pursuing a degree in college to become an art teacher. During her time in the District, she created two murals at Kromrey Middle School and another at Middleton High School in the cafeteria, leaving a lasting impact on the spaces students experience every day.

The virtual art show not only showcases student talent, but also connects schools, highlights creativity across all grade levels, and ensures that the incredible work happening in art classrooms is seen and appreciated.

And now, more than ever, that creativity is on full display.