A Senior’s Artwork Celebrates the Joy of Reading

“We thought it would be nice to capture Gilman kids doing one of the things they love to do, which is reading,” says Lower School Librarian Melissa Da. For the last couple of years, she had been keeping an eye out for student artwork to hang in the recently renovated space — but had not been successful in finding the right piece. Then she had the idea to commission one instead.

The seniors graduating this year were Da’s first students at Gilman when they were in fifth grade in the Lower School. Joshua Turner ’26, who enrolled as a fifth grader, was new to the community at the same time as his librarian in 2018, and Da has had the pleasure of watching him grow as an artist over the years. Now, he’ll be “leaving a legacy in the library,” she says.

Turner has always been interested in art but became more serious during his junior year AP Drawing/Painting class when he put in many hours in the studio. He and Da worked together to select photos — of Gilman boys doing what they do in the library — that he would paint. It was important to Da that the “spirit of working together” be depicted; Turner wanted to be sure he could “convey the real wonder and emotional depth in their facial expressions.” They landed on two photos: one of two boys reading together at the Lower School Book Swap and one of two boys working to solve a mystery at a third grade book club session. Da views the whole process — of bringing an aesthetic discipline into the library, recognizing a student’s talent and supporting his passion, and collaborating on this project with Turner — as a perfect representation of “what we value at this school.”

Turner is headed to Columbia University in the fall where he’ll study financial economics and art. Though his days on Roland Avenue are over, he hopes “that my pieces not only make boys in the library excited to read but also inspire them to pursue the arts, knowing a Gilman student painted those images.”