The 2012–13 Space of Her Own (SOHO) class is learning and growing on Thursday nights at The Art League’s newly expanded Madison Annex. This year’s students are getting lessons in art and healthy eating, and last week, they contributed to an upcoming exhibit on the National Mall.

The SOHO girls are participating in the “Write Home Soon” project, by contributing postcards with images of spaces they’ve lost, which they drew on the front of the card or created collage-style with magazine clippings. Their postcards will join hundreds of others from around the world in an exhibit at the Art Museum of the Americas, starting October 25.

“Write Home Soon” will be part of “Ripple Effect,” an AMA exhibit with the Washington Project for the Arts, featuring participation-based and socially-engaged art. The project by Mark Strandquist, a student at Virginia Commonwealth University, includes public installations and workshops. He approached SOHO co-founder Linda Odell in August about having the group participate, and last week was the workshop!

All the postcards will be hung from the ceiling of the museum, and visitors to the exhibit can take home postcards of their own to fill out and mail in. You can read more about the project on Mark Strandquist’s website.

To learn about how to support SOHO, click here.

Space of Her Own, which started in 2003 as a partnership between the Alexandria Court Services Unit and The Art League, supports at-risk girls with life skills and arts education. Each girl is paired with a mentor, and the group meets weekly throughout the school year for meals, mentorship, and arts lessons. At the end of the program, each girl’s bedroom is renovated to create a space of her own.