When the group visits museums, guides often stop and note how well-informed the children's critiques are, McVearry says--a major step for her students, who are often quiet and shy.

Outside class, McVearry worked individually with most of the students in the Holyoke Center exhibit.

She calls it a "mentor-apprentice relationship," because while she teaches her students the basics of painting, they have significant artistic freedom.

The children choose the subjects they want to paint, pick out their own materials in stores and mix their own colors. They even get to pick the size of their canvases. The result, says McVearry, is that they accomplish "something a lot harder than they thought they could."

She is now in the legal process of registering her after-school program, which she calls "Da Vinci Days," as a nonprofit business with additional teachers and students.

Communicating Through Art

Since enrolling at Harvard last summer, McVearry has missed her students. But the "Paint Pals/Pen Pals" program has allowed her to introduce her pupils' experiences into the lives of local kids.

Two weeks ago, McVearry and her friend Andrew L. Perito '01 brought the 11 paintings from the Holyoke exhibit to a fifth-grade classroom at Cambridgeport elementary school to talk about the artists.