300 Students, Parents, Teachers, and Cultural Partners Attend 10th Annual P.S. Art Opening
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott, and Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate Levin today celebrated the 10th anniversary of the P.S. Art Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, featuring 74 works of art including paintings, prints, sculptures, mixed-media works, collages, and drawings created by 76 NewYork City Public School students. The P.S. Art exhibition will run from June 12th to August 11th. Students in grades K-12 from schools in all five boroughs submitted artworks to the P.S. Art Competition. During the exhibition, student winners and their families will receive free admission to the museum. This year’s panel of judges included: Honorary Director of The Fund for Public Schools, Caroline Kennedy; President Emerita, Museum of Modern Art, Agnes Gund; Artist, Tony Bechara; and Artist, Fred Wilson.
“I want to congratulate the remarkable young women and men with art on display, and applaud the Met for continuing to showcase and inspire the creativity of our City’s youth,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Arts education breeds empathy and tolerance – the foundation of a strong society and supportive community. That’s why we are committed to ensuring the arts have a central place in our public schools, and that partnerships like these continue to provide critical experiences for our students.”
“Only in New York City do public students have opportunities to see their work hang in the same halls as great artists such as Manet and David – and have visitors from around the world experience their work,” said Schools Chancellor Walcott. “P.S. Art has truly evolved since the first exhibition in the DOE Headquarters, and it’s an honor to recognize the talents of these students and the hard work of their teachers.”
“The arts are an important part of every child’s education, and P.S. Art shows how the private and public sectors can work together with committed nonprofit partners to foster great arts programming, said Fund for Public Schools CEO Julia Bator. I want to thank our partners for joining us here today and especially our lead corporate partner, Bank of America, for their longstanding support of our City’s top budding artists.”
The P.S. Art Exhibition, launched in 2003 as an exhibition in the DOE Headquarters in Tweed Courthouse, is a way to recognize the visual artwork efforts of students, teachers, and arts partners in City schools. Art teachers from across the city submitted 786 entries that demonstrated development toward standards outlined in the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Visual Arts.
The Department of Education and its cultural partner, Studio in a School, convened a panel of artists, arts professionals, and respected arts educators to judge student submissions and select the winners. The panel of judges evaluated submissions based on the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Visual Arts. Studio in a School also presents fourteen winning high school seniors with a $1,500 scholarship award for towards college tuition or post-secondary arts studies.
This is the fifth year that the Department of Education has partnered with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to host the P.S. Art Exhibition. This year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art donated additional gallery space to show more student works in the Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education.
The Fund for Public Schools
The Fund for Public Schools is the nonprofit organization dedicated to securing public-private partnerships for New York City’s public schools. Since the inception of P.S. Art, The Fund has worked to secure philanthropic support to underwrite the exhibition’s costs, and Bank of America has been a longstanding supporter of this important initiative. For more information about The Fund for Public Schools, visit http://www.fundforpublicschools.org/.
For more information on Arts programs and Partners in the NYC Public Schools, please visit: http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/Arts/default.htm.