The Yarmouth Arts Alliance is hosting a student show, “Unsung Heroes”, at the Merrill Memorial Library on the first floor YA section of the library. The exhibit of portraits created by Yarmouth High School’s painting and drawing class, led by veteran YHS art teacher Melissa Sylvester, will be on display from January 23- February 26 with a reception on January 29 from 6:00- 6:45.
Melissa J. Sylvester is a Visual Art Educator at Yarmouth High School in Yarmouth, Maine. Having taught for 26 years, 24 of them at Yarmouth High School, she is a passionate Visual Arts Educator who thrives on instilling a lifelong love for learning and creativity in her students.
In 2015, Melissa was invited to a week-long fellowship at the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes in Fort Scott, Kansas. There, she learned about the Unsung Hero Project: A project-based learning experience where students discover unsung heroes: Individuals who changed the course of history through their extraordinary actions.
Melissa helped to develop the ArtEffect Project, a visual component of the Unsung Hero Discovery Project. For the past seven years, she has inspired her students with ArtEffect, a project-based learning experience. Students culminate their knowledge by creatively bringing their hero’s story to life through their works of art.