News and Events >Press Releases > January - February 2004

 

Congressman Hinchey Guest of Honor at The Innocent Landscape Opening on March 13

February 27, 2004
Contact: Sandra Moore, Director of Communications

Poughkeepsie, NY-Poughkeepsie Day School has announced that Congressman Maurice Hinchey, Democrat, 22nd District, will be the guest of honor at the opening of the photography exhibit, The Innocent Landscape, on Saturday, March 13 at the Mohonk Images Gallery in New Paltz.

The exhibit features the work of students in Poughkeepsie Day School's first and second-grade classes, who collaborated last year with landscape photographer G. Steve Jordan to photograph the Shawangunk Ridge in Ulster County. The Innocent Landscape, which also includes the students' poetry, has already traveled to the Mohonk Mountain House and the Mohonk Preserve. According to the head of Poughkeepsie Day School, Dr. Mary Jane Yurchak, the exhibit not only "captures with remarkable artistic sensibility the fragile beauty of this natural treasure [but also] speaks to the importance of collaborative partnerships between schools, organizations and professionals in our community committed to active, authentic education."

The exhibit is a culminating project of the students' year-long study called "Life in the Mountains: The Shawangunk Ridge." Led by educators and naturalists from the Mohonk Preserve, the students and their teachers, Rebecca Santner, Bill Fiore and Lynn Fordin, traveled to the Ridge many times to study its flora, fauna and history. Guided by Jordan, who had volunteered his time and expertise to the project, and equipped only with disposable cameras, the students proceeded to chronicle and document on film what they saw.

The opening runs from 3-5 pm. For more information, contact the gallery at 845-255-6800.

Founded in 1934, Poughkeepsie Day School enrolls 350 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12 from 48 communities in the mid-Hudson Valley. It is distinguished by its interactive and interdisciplinary approach to learning and emphasis on the development of creative and critical thinking skills.