Home - Sanctuary 504

After humble beginnings at Hagood Avenue School and growing pains in regular classrooms with desks, Jerry Morris adapted his teaching style to inspired creativity and an appreciation for how art has influenced our world and culture.

For 38 years many of Jerry Morris' students found his art room, room number 504, to be a sanctuary where they felt safe expressing themselves, learning, and growing.

Take a moment and look around you at everything in the room you are sitting that is not living. Without art, none of it would exist. The paint colors, chairs and tables, lamps, and of course the art on the walls all exist because of art.

Art is the most important part of human existence. Art is creative thinking, which is problem solving, which is inventing new things not in nature. Tools, buildings, how we express ourselves with clothing, and the activities we most enjoy in life like reading, music, and experiencing beautiful interpretations of the world we live in would not exist without art.

In a world where art has evolved to be mostly passive, we wanted to provide you with the opportunity to remember how important it is to our lives and culture. The following art was created by students in Jerry Morris’ art room "Sanctuary 504."