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The first South Dade Schools ArtsFest will take place in Pinecrest Gardens March 20 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The ArtsFest will feature Miami-Dade students in the visual and performing arts. The work includes fashion/design, visual arts, photography, poetry, orchestra, jazz, and theater performances, some virtual and some in person. All students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools can participate.
“Visual arts students are able to physically submit their work for the gallery,” says John Solomon, executive & musical director of the Pinecrest City Music Project. “The greater part of the program will be virtual, to accommodate for COVID. The safety of our performers is important to us.”
There will be some in-person performances and physical arts pieces in a gallery that will be set up.
“We have a curation committee that is assembling the best possible exposure for all artists,” he says. “We will not say no to any artist who wants to showcase their work. The curation committee is to best display their work.”
Any student that submitted work is included in the show.
“If they want to showcase their work and they want to perform for the community, we say yes to them because that’s what our whole program is about,” he says.
The Arts/Fest is a new program for the group. They wanted to showcase the arts, which has been hit hard by the pandemic.
“That’s been the single most challenging part of COVID,” he says. “Music and the arts are not like an academic arts. In the arts, your satisfaction is sharing your work with the community, and making them happy.”
Solomon says the Arts/Fest will not only showcase student’s work and build their confidence, but will work to repair a community that has been shattered due to COVID.
The Arts/Fest will also feature exhibits for those with neurodiversity.
“We are making sure everyone feels included,” he says. “We will be having some visual arts stimulus activities such as canvas painting that includes elements from nature such as leaves.”
The organization has been operating since 2016. It is a minor-run organization, which funds and runs music programs at a number of Miami-Dade non-magnet schools in the south end of the county. They work with more than 500 students on five campuses through the Pinecrest Sprouts Spring program. The high school volunteers teach the children not only how to play music, but they also teach music theory and even music coding.
“We are not only creating successful artists, our mission is to create holistic leaders in and outside the classroom,” he says. “We’re a community organization with community values. All of our classes are peer based. The children are instructed by highly qualified students.”
The majority of the volunteers are students at Miami Palmetto High School.
The program is in both elementary and middle schools. The elementary school children take part in after school programs, but the middle school kids are taught in the last period of the day.
“Our instructors teach on a volunteer basis,” he says.
The volunteers can trade their instructional hours for a stipend that can pay for a college summer program or continuing education in their field. They recently converted one administrative staff member’s community service into a stipend that allowed her to take a grant writing course at Miami-Dade College.
The program is supported by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
For information go to ArtsFest.pcmpmusic.org.
