Every year, each of the City’s five boroughs hosts an arts festival at the school year’s end to celebrate and highlight student achievement in the arts, from kindergartners to high school seniors. In the Bronx, the celebration is usually held at Lehman College, with a performing arts showcase at Lehman Center, and a visual arts exhibition at the Lehman College Art Gallery.

 

This year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the exhibition, just like the Lehman College campus that hosts it, went virtual. The City’s department of education officials who produce the festivals, worked with Lehman on this year’s event. Joanna Berenson is Bronx Borough Arts Director in the education department’s office of arts and special projects. She said the aim of the event was to “create a nice opportunity for the kids,” once they realized that their traditional showcase was not going to happen.

 

The work of more than 153 visual artists and 20 performing artists from Bronx schools can now be found online, through the gallery’s website, and instead of the live performance at Lehman Center, student vocalists, dancers, violinists, percussionists and guitar players put their talents together to perform The Beatles classic, “Here Comes the Sun,” in a virtual tribute video.

 

Berenson said the group learned that the song was one hospitals played when a COVID-19 patient was released. She added that the festival gives the students’ art validity. “And that is powerful for our students,” she said.

 

Meanwhile, Bartholomew Bland is director of the Lehman College Art Gallery, and called the students’ collective work “a great triumph of the human spirit”. He added, “Our gallery is very much rooted in the community. Many of the students featured in this show will be our future students at Lehman College. We’re looking forward to having another celebration next spring, and making them familiar with what college is all about.”

 

The show will be displayed through Aug. 30 on the Lehman College Art Gallery’s website.