Making Waves: How the Duck Derby Helped Us Rebuild

We are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of love and support from our Academy community following last month's water main break. What started as a discouraging moment for our students and faculty became a powerful reminder of how deeply this community cares. Because of your generosity, we raised over $12,000, with all proceeds supporting the clean-up and restoration of our Lower Gallery, Visual Arts Studio, and Media Arts Photography Lab. These funds are already helping bring these creative spaces back to life for our students and community. 

Over the past month, we’ve shared stories from students whose work and creative processes were directly impacted by the first-floor flooding. Among them are two of our 11th-grade Visual Arts students, Neehra Meniooh and Dionne Eskridge. Both students faced unexpected challenges as they navigated the loss of materials, disruption of workspace, and the stress of starting again. Through resilience and determination, Neehra and Dionne reimagined their damaged pieces and reprepared them in time for the postponed Winter Juried Exhibition. This unexpected challenge – not part of our usual curriculum – showed the resilience and perseverance of our young artists.

To hear Neehra and Dionne share their personal stories in their own words, watch the video spotlights below:

To everyone who supported our Duck Derby – whether by donating, sharing, or cheering us on – thank you for jumping into the deep end with us. Your generosity is helping us restore more than physical spaces; it is helping us restore opportunities and experiences for our students. We are deeply grateful for your continued support, and proud to be part of a community that always shows up.