Inside the Tyler ISD Virtual Art Museum, viewers can select a Tyler ISD campus to view a gallery of student art pieces. Viewers can move through the gallery by following the directions on the screen.

Tyler ISD is showcasing students’ art in a new and innovative way.

The first ever Virtual Art Museum features talented and award-winning artists across Tyler ISD from kindergarten to 12th grade. Since Saturday, the public can now view the exhibit until 8 p.m. May 29.

The virtual museum is co-hosted to support and celebrate visual art by the Tyler Museum of Art and Texas Art Education Association.

Inside the virtual museum, viewers can select a Tyler ISD campus to view a gallery of student art pieces. Viewers can move through the gallery by following the directions on the screen. They can also click the art pieces to learn the inspiration behind them or select the image of the art teacher to learn more about that campus’ art program.

“Students need to experience success to take risks,” Tyler ISD Director of Visual and Performing Arts Sandra Newton said.“If they negotiate their way through a set of experiences and have this beautiful result, they learn to become more resilient and take more risks. When they learn they are successful at something, they can also foster, cultivate, and excel at that skill.”

She said a positive thing about the virtual art museum is people who may not be in Tyler to admire the students’ artwork may now experience it virtually outside of the surrounding areas.

Teachers selected the top five highlights of art at their campus. Some students participated in art contests and won some sort of recognition or honors, Newton said.

The idea came to Newton after seeing a few examples and hearing conversations on how this can be accomplished. She worked closely with art teachers and other people in the district to make this happen.

“We wanted to make it as accessible and interactive as we could,” she said. “It was a group project; we all worked together on it. We started working on it from probably about January or February until now,” Newton said.

Newton said she was so proud to be able to see the final product and to celebrate students’ successes.

“I am so proud. I am so, so, so proud. I absolutely love celebrating our incredible, successful, amazingly awesome students. The students and teachers made it happen, and it’s incredible. When I see the virtual museum out there representing our school district, students, and teachers, it makes me so proud,” she said.

Newton said she is happy Tyler ISD has the opportunity to celebrate students’ accomplishments in a new platform.

The Virtual Art Museum is available in English and Spanish and features every school across Tyler ISD. Also included are recognitions for the district that range from the Texas Art Education Association to UIL and the NAMM Foundation.

The link to the museum can be found at tylerisd.org.