The framed artwork of kindergarten, 1st- and 3rd-grade students at PS 18 in Mott Haven, the Bronx, now hangs on the walls of the Lincoln Medical Center to the delight of patients, visitors and staff. For the seventh year, city schoolchildren have donated their works of art to hospitals citywide as part of The Art of Giving, a collaborative project of the UFT’s Elementary School Division and the Fund for NYC Health + Hospitals.

Art teacher Zoila Cordova at PS 18, one of the UFT community learning schools, said the students were amazed when they saw their work framed and on public display. “They had studied Jackson Pollock and learned how shape and color determine emotion so they were thinking about that while making their art,” she explained.

Organized by UFT Vice President for Elementary Schools Karen Alford, the project was inspired by the late Sharon Coates, a teacher at PS 156 in Brooklyn, who, during her hospitalization, said that seeing the children’s artwork on the walls lifted her spirits.

Cordova and her young artists were honored at a reception on June 13 when their abstract works were unveiled at the Lincoln Medical Center, across the street from the school.