For anyone who is despondent over the state of today’s youth “From the Studios: Artwork by ABC and MMA Students” at the Chandler Gallery provides a hopeful perspective on the next generation. The outpouring of youthful creativity from students enrolled in Maud Morgan Arts classes and the Agassiz Baldwin Afterschool program is charming: when given the opportunity to make animal benches, students in 2nd-5th grade sawed, hammered and painted a llama, a platypus, a unicorn, and Dr. Seuss’s Yertle the Turtle.

The student self-portraits in oil pastel show both the students’ considerable grasp of teacher Roz Sommer’s lessons and the individual personalities of the artists. In one fifth-grader’s self-portrait, the student’s red hair jumps out from the vivid green background, and the skillfully rendered rumpled collar of his flannel shirt softens the angles of his face. A sixth-grader painted her cheeks in patches of color, suggesting a swirl of thoughts behind the concern in her eyes. Many of the tongue-in-cheek titles such as “Flowers in Paris” are non-sequiturs referencing art history.

Other notable pieces include story quilts from 1st-5th graders with accompanying cards describing the scenes in each quilt, hand-bound books, and a balsa wood bicycle. Students also collaborated to assemble plastic beads into the Mona Lisa, and they used a painter’s palette as the setting for a 3D landscape made of clay. As for the duct tape, the children have wrangled the popular adhesive into the shape of . . . a duck.

“From the Studios: Artwork by ABC and MMA Students” is on display at the Chandler Gallery from June 1-19. The opening reception will be held on June 4 from 5:30-6:30 pm. The Maria L. Baldwin School will hold its annual art show from May 21-29.