Opening with the main show is Jubilee 2009, Homer's student art show. This year, students were invited to explore the impact of the Exxon Valdez spill. Through the spring and summer the Pratt offers talks and discussions about the spill, starting with a talk at 6 p.m. March 26 by biologist Craig Matkin on the effects of the spill on whales and wildlife.

About 35 artists have signed up for "Reflections of a Spill," Cusack-McVeigh said.

"This is a very diverse show in terms of the way people are expressing their feelings about this 20th anniversary," she said.

Jubilee's artists created their work mindful of the past. While the spill might be vivid in their parents' memories, the students hadn't even been born when the spill happened. Pratt education director Ryjil Christianson has been doing educational talks in local classrooms this year. Christianson put together spill information kits with objects like oiled rocks.

"It's very generational how long ago it was," said Paul Banks Elementary School teacher Jennifer Reinhardt, who did a Jubilee project for her first-grade class. "Some of them were asking 'Are those oily beaches still there with that oil on them?'"

Poet Eva Saulitis did a poetry project with Reinhardt's class. Matkin also came to the class and talked about the spill's effects on animals.

"He gave us a wonderful presentation, showed us slides and answered a bagillion questions," Reinhardt said.

Students chose animals that might have been hurt by the spill, and then wrote journals about what they knew and learned about the animals. They then made paper models of the animals to go on a totem pole.

Saulitis guided the students into writing poems about the animals. She helped them come up with verbs, nouns, adjectives and prepositions relevant to the animals. The students wrote down the words, cut them out and played with them.

"They ended up with these beautiful, beautiful poems," Reinhardt said. "The format that she laid out made it possible for them to be successful. It's deep and introspective poetry. It ties it all together."

The poems were placed with the animal art work on the totem pole. That work is on display in the Jubilee exhibit.

Reinhardt's students also explored the issue of fault and responsibility.

"That was shocking to them that it was an accident, nobody did this on purpose and somebody still had to clean it up," Reinhardt said. "A grown-up could make a mistake that was that big. How would you fix that? It brought up a lot of deep, great and thoughtful questions for the kids."

"Reflections of a Spill" is up through June 28. Jubilee 2009 is on exhibit through May 10. Cusack-McVeigh said "Darkened Waters" will be updated as part of the Pratt's phase 2 exhibit remodeling.

One visitor asked why the Pratt would do a Jubilee art exhibit on the theme of the Exxon Valdez spill since those students weren't even born 20 years ago.

"We said, 'That's precisely why we're doing this," Cusack-McVeigh said. "We must never forget. We need to know how it's impacting our community."