What is Visions?

Each year, Visions brings together 42 high school art students from diverse Maricopa County high schools to Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) for a yearlong series of activities designed to cultivate artistic skills, collaboration, and civic engagement. Beginning in 1999, the program is based on a strong community partnership between Scottsdale Arts and participating schools that represent economically, ethnically, and culturally diverse communities. To date, over 1,000 students have graduated from the program.

Most years, Visions students visit exhibitions and college art departments, attend workshops and gallery talks by outstanding local and national artists, collaborate on arts projects, participate in communication workshops and diversity discussions, and exhibit their work in Scottsdale Arts’ Center Space gallery at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. 

Latest Exhibition

Explore the most recent exhibition online. 

Testimonials

“I learned to look deeper into things, to truly reach out with my heart to feel what others are feeling.” — Pinnacle High School student

“One of my students had a really tough year—home life, health, academically—and his inclusion in the Visions program gave him something to look forward to when he felt like nothing else was working. At one point, he was thinking of quitting in-person school, but Visions was one of the reasons he stayed at Chaparral. As the program concluded, everything seemed to come back together for him, and he has exploded with creativity.  He’s back on track at school, he started a website/Instagram of his work and has high hopes for his future in the arts. I received a very thoughtful ‘thank you’ letter from his mom for helping him through this tough year. I attribute a lot of that to the Visions program. It gave me a space to interact with him through the arts on a deeper level than the school day normally allows and the whole program gave him advanced insight and confidence in his own process as an artist/photographer.” — Chaparral High School teacher

“This program has opened up a whole new level of creativity, allowing students to fully express themselves, which makes my classroom that much more open and fun to learn in.”  — Teacher, Visions ‘20 

“I struggle with depression and anxiety, and my mind would sometimes be so negative that I couldn’t go to school. With Visions, and the policy of keeping grades up and attendance up, and just the overall excitement of counting down the days until the next Visions meeting, honestly keeps me getting up out of bed in the morning. I have never been so close to a certain group of students and teachers.” — Student, Visions ‘20 

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