Jennifer Shiberou teaches 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in an optional visual arts program. Using real issues to inspire her students, she then works with them on how to express their ideas visually. Mrs. Shiberou explains that because she has the same students for their three years of middle school, the class becomes close and functions like a family; the students are often willing to share things they might not share in other classes, leading to taking risks by sharing emotions in their artwork as well.
Her students regularly participate (and place!) in the annual Holocaust Art Contest sponsored by the Memphis Jewish Federation. Using photographs, documentaries, and survivor testimonies as primary sources, the students start learning about a subject most are not familiar with. This year the theme for the contest was the Lodz Ghetto in Poland. Mrs. Shiberou invited Mr. Sam Weinreich, our community’s only living survivor of Lodz, to come speak to her students about his life there. As they learn how the Jews struggled for survival and were portrayed by the Nazi regime, the students begin to relate to the content personally.
We visit this inspiring classroom and meet three of Mrs. Shiberou’s students who won awards in last year’s contest when they were only 7th graders. The theme last year was the dehumanization of the Jews. Atornubari explains that her piece shows a young Jewish girl’s journey from innocent child to victim. Celeste tells us that her artwork represents the loss of childhood suffered by Jewish children and the Nazi propaganda depicting Jews as monsters. Deuntå shares that learning about the Holocaust helped him begin to understand how the Jews felt about being treated so horrifically.
Mrs. Shiberou’s students develop into empathetic young artists who are able to express themselves through art, cognizant of its power to open hearts and minds and raise awareness of issues. Watching these students and their dedicated teacher makes us, in the words of Anne Frank, “somehow feel that everything will change for the better.”
