“At court, everybody’s nervous. This was a place where I wanted us to also have artwork where people could look and not think about all the other things that were going on in their lives that they can’t control. The problem was trying to get that started. It just never seemed to get off the ground. So what the Arts Board grant brought was this opportunity to actually have a project that we outlined step by step how we were going to do this. I am Judge Katerina Cook. I’m the Administrative Judge of the Summit County Domestic Relations Court. We’re here today to hear more about Children in Their Best Interest exhibit. In court, we always have the adults determine what is in a child’s best interest. We don’t ask the children so much what’s in their best interest. All the artwork you see has a comment being made where they’re actually telling us what’s in their best interest. What I hope is that people see the theme, they understand how important it is for children to express themselves and that they can always keep a child’s concerns and needs and future goals in mind in whatever they do when they walk through the doors of a courtroom. The feeling and experience of the space is vastly different. It was amazing to watch people that came into court going from picture to picture. In fact, I just found out today from my bailiff that somebody actually wanted to purchase one of the pieces. How special is that? That they think so much of this artwork that they actually wanted to buy it.”