Vicki L. Dollin Art Gallery Opens At Walt Whitman High School In South Huntington

SOUTH HUNTINGTON, NY — It’s been 22 years in the making, but the South Huntington School District now has its very own art gallery to showcase students’ work, the school district announced.

The district celebrated the opening of the new Vicki L. Dollin Art Gallery at Walt Whitman High School with a ribbon-cutting on Nov. 18. The opening was held the same day as the annual Fine Art and Crafts Fair that’s been put on at the high school since 2001.

The gallery is named after the former Walt Whitman art teacher, Vicki Dollin, who first proposed the art gallery idea and created the Fine Art and Crafts Fair as a way to raise money for construction.

The new addition is next to the Performing Arts Center (PAC) in the 200 wing. It features a glass door and a window so students and visitors can admire what’s on display from the hallway even when the gallery is closed.

Dollin worked as an art teacher at Whitman from 1999 to 2014.

"It was a vision I had every time I walked past the courtyard in the 200 wing across from the PAC," Dollin said in a news release. "I imagined what it would look like for years. I always felt as though we lacked three dimensional showcase space."

A large 3D space would be better suited to display student artwork in all mediums including ceramics and sculpture, according to the district. Using her previous experience in event planning, Dollin started the Fine Art and Crafts Fair specifically to raise money for an Art Development Fund to build an art gallery at the high school.

More than two decades later, that dream is now a reality. The opening featured the works of five former South Huntington art teachers including Dollin, Verna Amakawa, Paula Beck, Carol Davis, and Mary Ponte.

After Vicki raised more than $150,000 for the project and donated it to the school district, the school board voted to name the gallery after her.

"The naming of the gallery [in my honor] was an unexpected but amazing honor I will always be grateful for," Dollin said. "It’s a true legacy."

Art students and teachers can now begin to plan exhibitions to be featured at the gallery year round.