Holding Space for Student Creativity

November 10, 2025
• High school students displayed their artistic prowess through various mediums at the latest exhibit out of Gallery 450.

Art students at Needham High School inhabit their own world, off in a far corner of the building. As art teacher Maria Sartori put it, “The art wing is way up there, it’s up in the heavens, so it’s easy not to leave.”

On Friday morning, the young artists and teachers descended into Gallery 450, a wing of the second floor that now houses artwork. The newest exhibit, titled “Exploring Space,” featured student work from across grade levels, skills and media. They gathered before first period to explore the space themselves.

Dozens of ninth through 12th graders participated in the showcase, which welcomed more eyes on their work both within the school community and to the broader public. Nearly 50 physical works were scattered throughout the wing, with other works displayed on a tv in the space.

“It’s nice to have people see it, [but] I want to hear the criticisms and not the positive feedback,” NHS junior Ilan Bernstein said, laughing.

Bernstein’s piece, “Light + Shadow,” is his first to be featured in Gallery 450. It’s a product of his Intermediate Photography class. The photo captures a ceiling vent that, when he shined light onto it, displayed an interesting pattern of shadows. “It’s remaking something that everybody sees every day,” he said.

The exhibit included architectural models, digital art, drawings, origami boxes, map designs, zines — short, homemade magazines — and a 3D slice of cake by senior Sami Mazzocchi.

NHS art teachers received a grant for the space from the Needham Education Foundation in 2019, after observing a need, teacher Kate Bergeron said.

“As a department, we noticed we were lacking a formal gallery space to house student work,” Bergeron said. “We all hang artwork outside of our classrooms, and those serve as places to have critiques and spotlight students, but we wanted something that was available to the public and especially to the greater community in the building.”

The grant covered hanging elements for framed art as well as museum cases for other pieces. The first Gallery 450 show took place in 2021, after delays due to the pandemic. Since then, the space has held a series of shows, including one dedicated to faculty art from across departments. In March, student work was featured in “Beneath the Surface,” another exhibit.

Needham high schoolers are required to take eight art credits before graduation, which amounts to two full-year classes or four semester classes, which include Ceramics, Motion Design, Crafts, Drafting and Linear Perspective, Drawing and Painting, Sculpture and more.

There are four full-year art classes, with Art 3 being AP Art Portfolio.

Opposite Bernstein’s photo in the gallery hangs Aspen Olson’s “Rhys the Immortal,” depicting Olson’s 16-year-old cat whom the piece “preemptively” memorializes. The artwork shows Rhys at an extreme low angle, framing his size, and was part of a summer assignment called “larger than life.”

Having taken Art 2 and 3, and currently enrolled in Art 4, known as Senior Studios, Olson said walking around the gallery space can expose different classes to work outside their chosen field.

“It’s fun to see the other art classes that I forget exist,” the senior said.

For teachers, the space also serves as a colorful reprieve and moment of discovery. Those who walk through the gallery learn how their students are also involved in art, Sartori said.

Since its permanent installation, the building “is so much more lively and inviting,” Bergeron said.

“Some teachers even take their students on a walk during the long block and do a gallery walk,” she said, “or they’ll do a scavenger hunt in the space and try to make it like interdisciplinary connections.”

Their next planned show will be a showcase of student work across electives, which will help inform students during course selection. This spring, Bergeron said there will be an exhibit featuring art from across the year.

“Exploring Space” is on display now until February.