The “Life in a Border Town” exhibit, featuring pictures taken by Mexican children, was opened to the public on Friday and will remain open until May 5.

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts that started in 2006. The organization gives out grants to communities nationwide for events such as this exhibit. The Big Read’s panel of experts reviewed this year’s applications and gave out grants to many institutions. Since 2006, The Big Read has reached communities across all 50 states and awarded more than 800 grants.

This year, over 200 communities are participating in the organization’s effort, said Emily Love, an outreach librarian for multicultural service. Each community was given 20 culturally diverse books to choose from.

“The Big Read answers a big need,” Love said. “In Champaign-Urbana, this is now our third year with The Big Read.”

The opening of the exhibit was the kick-off’s center feature. Given three weeks, fifth graders of the Felipe Carillo Puerto primary school were provided with 100 disposable cameras to capture moments of their lives in the border city of Reynosa McAllen, Texas.

“We gave them a list of things that we would like to take a picture of,” said Jonathan Searfoss, one of the project founders. “Some kids followed it religiously; some ignored it completely, but the results are amazing.”

The children returned over 2,000 photographs, of which 50 are on display at the University’s exhibit. Searfoss and David Freeman, the project founders, were both present at the opening. They said they lived an extended amount of time in a U.S.-Mexico border town, from which stemmed their inspiration for the project.

“We decided that our unique position allowed us to give a unique perspective,” Searfoss said. Searfoss said fifth graders were integral to the project because of their different outlook on the world.

“They’re not quite old enough to understand that there are bad things out there, and they’re young enough to have an innocent view,” Searfoss added.

Freeman said he agreed with Searfoss in that the role the children played in the project was significant.

“They capture so many of the things that I think an adult misses,” Freeman said. “Their vision and what they captured is so fresh.”

The University is undertaking a similar project in collaboration with other schools near the district, including Booker T. Washington School and Champaign Central High School.

“We will have them capture pictures of their lives here in a Midwest town and compare and contrast,” Love said.