Art is supposed to hang on walls. It's supposed to be seen in bright, museum spaces where viewers maintain a respectful distance, hands clasped behind their backs. These are the conventions.  

But in an art installation last semester, eighth grade students broke those rules. Each student constructed a suitcase out of collected cardboard and pizza boxes (brown and neutral on the exterior) and filled the inside with color, whimsy, and symbols that the student found vibrant and surprising from GK Chesterton’s Manalive.   

The suitcases were then hung for the Saint Constantine community to come and see in a darkened room immersed in nostalgic instrumentals and cosmic lighting. Each person who entered the installation was not only encouraged to look at all of the suitcases hanging—but was also invited to take a suitcase off of its hook, open the suitcase’s latches, and encounter the interior world that the student had created inside. Before entering the room, Beacon House, participants read:   

Take up the candle. 
Kindly open the door. 
Choose one hanging piece. 
Unhook it with care. 
Open gently…wonder within. 
Hang it back upon its hook. 
Much obliged. 

It was a true delight to see our young artists offer their work so freely, practicing a quiet detachment from their art and accepting with good humor the real risks that come with placing art into living hands—including the very real possibility that a curious pre-K child might test the strength of a suitcase hinge or two. 

It was also moving to see community members lined up—actually lined up—for the chance to step inside the installation and discover what the artists had placed within. Once in the room, there was some giggling. There were some oohs and ahs. But, most movingly, there was also the silence that settles over someone encountering something unexpectedly beautiful. 

Chesterton described protagonist Innocent Smith this way:

“This man's spiritual power has been precisely this, that he has distinguished between custom and creed. He has broken the conventions, but he has kept the commandments.” 

By breaking the conventions, our eighth graders were able to return to first principles: Art is meant to invite. Art is meant to reveal something about the artist. Art is meant to create connection between the one who makes and the one who sees. Our artists reminded everyone to show up, to offer your work to others, and to be open to receiving the same.