Students from Staten Island’s PS 50 and Gravesend’s PS 95 brightened the halls and patients’ lives at two local hospitals by donating their artwork as part of this year’s Art of Giving project. The artwork, created under the guidance of the students’ art teachers, was unveiled at receptions on June 2 and May 14.

“The Art of Giving instills the value of community service in the lives of our children as well as bringing optimism to patients,” UFT Vice President for Elementary Schools Karen Alford said of the project, which is in its fifth year. At PS 50, the 20 5th-graders participating in the project used oil paint, chalk and charcoal to create paintings of flowers, grape vines, leaves and other flora based on the stained-glass works of artist Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Their framed works decorate the lobby at Richmond University Medical Center. According to PS 50 art teacher Natasha Galante, “We were so honored that we were able to share our work with the people in our community.” PS 95 art teacher William Lawson said that he was “fulfilled” by “making something for someone else and knowing they would get joy out of it.” Eleven of Lawson’s 5th-graders participated, using watercolors to paint beach scenes that will hang on the walls at Coney Island Hospital.

The project was inspired by the late Sharon Coates, a teacher at PS 156 in District 23, who told Alford during her hospitalization that “seeing the children’s artwork on the walls lifted my spirits.”