April 30th, 2026
After a year-long mentorship program connecting young creatives with professional Arizona-based artists, Scottsdale Arts will open the newest exhibition, “Visions ‘26,” on May 1 at the Center Space gallery inside Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.
CAPTION: Scottsdale Arts will open its “Visions ’26” exhibition at Center Space gallery inside Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts on May 1. Photo: Betty L Hum Photography
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — After a year-long mentorship program connecting young creatives with professional Arizona-based artists, Scottsdale Arts will open the newest exhibition, “Visions ‘26,” on May 1 at the Center Space gallery inside Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.
Visions is a year-long, invitational visual arts program offered to advanced art students at six Valley high schools and is one of the longest-running museum teen art programs in the country. Throughout the year, the students worked with 13 teaching artists, along with staff and faculty at Arizona State University, University of Arizona and Paradise Valley Community College, to learn skills in painting, multimedia and sculpture.
This year, 40 students participated in the Visions program. One of the returning students is Emily Pye, a senior from Pinnacle High School. Her mixed media piece titled “Le Stagioni” explores Pye’s Italian heritage through her version of the four-season plates displayed in many Italian homes.
“It was definitely bittersweet,” Pye said. “I've always associated these plates with the central part of my memories with my family, our home and just being together. After I graduate, my family will be moving. I’m obviously going to college, but we're selling that house and moving to California, and it's bittersweet. I'm leaving the home that I grew up in.”
While the goal of Visions is to teach and inspire the next generation of young artists, the program also gives students finishing high school a chance to reflect on the last four years of their lives and prepare for their futures.
Ilana Belogorodsky, also a returning Visions student from Pinnacle High School, created an oil painting titled “Refracted.” Belogorodsky said she challenged herself to create a composition resembling stained glass to portray different emotions throughout her childhood.
“I've prioritized my family this year and tried to reflect more on them because I'm realizing that I'm going to be my own person,” Belogorodsky said. “I've never been fond of doing self-portraits, but I feel like I’ve been drawn to it because I’m moving away from childhood.”
Belogorodsky and Pye are only two of the 26 students who will be graduating from high school and moving forward in their artistic pursuits. Through the Visions program, the students have the opportunity to grow their artistic skills, as well as communication, time management and problem solving.
“Visions has given me the confidence to interact in a professional sphere of art,” Pye said. “I subscribe to the idea that the first time you do anything will always be the hardest. Now that I’ve done the program twice, I know everything else is going to be a million times easier. I've done this before; I can do it again.”
“Visions ’26” will run from May 1 through Sept. 13, 2026. A public reception will be held on Friday, May 1, at 5 p.m. for the students, their family members and their friends. It is also open to the public. Visitors will also be able to see the exhibition for themselves in the Center Space gallery from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays through Sept. 13. The center is closed on Mondays. For more information, visit ScottsdaleArts.org.
MEDIA CONTACT: Sydney Ritter | SydneyR@ScottsdaleArts.org | 480-874-4663