If McVearry was surprised and touched that strangers would be interested in purchasing the canvases, she was overwhelmed with the response of the fifth graders.

"The young kids were stunned," she says. "They started asking all sorts of questions--did they really chose what to paint all by themselves? How did they know what colors to use or how to mix paints? The children were so impressed with the accomplishments that someone their age had rendered."

And then the Cambridge children expressed their feelings. For an hour and a half, the fifth graders wrote poems about the paintings and letters to the artists. The poems are also on display in Holyoke.

"It was an awesome experience," Perito says. "You look at the poetry and the art and it captures the uniqueness of this experience. I hope that people are able to see the same things I saw in the exhibit and appreciate the connection made between the two groups of kids."

McVearry is equally thrilled at the response from the local children, who overcame the "miles of separation and communicated through art."

"We brought the paintings to school in the hopes that they would be able to communicate through the poetry," says McVearry. "We will go back to the artists, now, [with the poems and letters], so that they can see that the work means something to someone else."