Student Art Contest: Junior Division, First Place
5th Grade – Alameda Elementary School
I belong to many communities, including the Portland community, my school community, my neighborhood community, and my family.
My piece has three panels. When I first thought about my responsibilities to make my community better, I thought of three things and wanted to create a piece showing each of them in different panels.
The first responsibility I thought of is taking care of the community, which is represented in the community garden panel. People are caring for the environment and providing food and beauty for others.
Another responsibility that is important to me is standing up for others, which is represented in the panel showing a protest. If people didn’t stand up for other people, the world wouldn’t be as good of a place to live.
I also think it is my responsibility to bring people together for fun. In the middle panel, I show neighbors being together and being friendly. Friends are playing and people are waving to each other. When people have fun together they get to know each other, and that makes our community stronger.
Min Yasui believed that everyone was equal and staying connected could help more people recognize that. My piece shows togetherness and people standing up for each other, working collaboratively and building friendships, just like Min did his whole life. It shows people working together to make the community a better place and good for everyone. That was what Min wanted.