A recent visit to the Contemporary Arts Center provided AP Art and Design students with an exceptional opportunity to engage directly with Gee Horton while experiencing his exhibition, Chapter 4: In Another Lifetime. The visit moved beyond observation, offering students insight into both the conceptual depth of Horton’s work and the lived experience of a practicing artist.

Spanning two galleries, the exhibition continues Horton’s evolving body of work through large-scale photorealistic drawings, photography, collage, video, and installation. His exploration of generational memory, childhood, and the navigation of grief and loss, invites viewers to examine the tension between safety and vulnerability, and how these forces shape identity. Building on Chapter 3: Be Home Before the Streetlights…, Horton shifts from the idea of returning home to what is inherited once we arrive.

At the center of Chapter 4 is the narrative of Freeman Little, a boy living with a rare hereditary sleep disorder that produces vivid, prophetic dreams. Through this lens, Horton blurs memory, imagination, and reality, creating a space where past and present coexist. Students responded to this storytelling approach as a powerful model for embedding meaning and narrative within their own work.

Horton also shared his journey to becoming a full-time artist later in life, speaking candidly about the risks, persistence, and clarity that accompanied that transition. His perspective challenged students to think more expansively about creative careers and reinforced that artistic paths are often nonlinear.

The visual impact of Horton’s exhibition, particularly his graphite and cyanotype works, immersive assemblages, and symbolic imagery, deepened students’ understanding of how material and scale can support complex ideas. This, paired with the experience of exhibiting their own work, prompted thoughtful dialogue about intention, craftsmanship, and the role of art in communicating layered narratives.

In addition to engaging with Horton’s work, students experienced a meaningful full-circle moment by viewing their own exhibition on the CAC’s 6th floor Creativity Center gallery. The displayed works, developed through this year’s SOP (School Outreach Program) experiences, reflected individual and collective explorations of process, concept, and personal voice. Seeing their work installed in a professional gallery setting elevated the experience, encouraging students to consider presentation, audience, and context as integral parts of their practice.

Together, these experiences underscored the value of connection: between artist and audience, concept and execution, and student work and professional practice. For AP Art and Design students, the visit was not only an opportunity to learn from Gee Horton, but also to see themselves as part of a larger creative community; one where their voices, ideas, and work hold real presence and potential.