Members of the school community at PS 18 in the South Bronx have transformed a brick wall into a mural reflecting the diversity and values that make the UFT United Community School and its neighborhood a vibrant community.

Arts programs may be on the chopping block this fall as school principals look for ways to cut costs in the face of Mayor Adams’ school budget cuts. But for many educators, the pandemic has proven that arts instruction is more important than ever.

Colleagues and students create a mosaic mural to remember Rulx Dagus, a paraprofessional at P 369K in Park Slope, Brooklyn, who died of COVID-19. 

Collaboration among three arts teachers and their classes at PS 295 in Brooklyn led to a 90-second commercial. They came up with the idea and designed a product in art class, composed a jingle in music class and wrote a script and acted out the commercial in drama class. 

School social worker Maureen Eigenfeld has made art the cornerstone of her therapeutic work with students at the Bronx Writing Academy, a United Community School in Concourse Village.