What was once an empty lot and an eyesore is now a treasured new park for the Morrisania community in the South Bronx to enjoy, thanks in part to the imagination and industry of students and staff from nearby PS 159.

The vacant lot is now the Hayden Lord Park, a collaboratively designed community park featuring mosaic art, a playground for children, a performance gazebo, an organic garden and colorful benches inviting residents to stop and enjoy a few moments together.

Local artists, building professionals, students, educators and volunteers together had a hand in the transformation.

“The children are amazed at the change they’ve helped bring about,” said Evelyn Ortiz, the PS 159 chapter leader and arts coordinator. “Now they want to transform every inch of space around our school building into something as beautiful.”

While students helped in many aspects of the park’s creation — preparing and planting the gardens and painting benches — it is their mosaics that stand as their special contribution.

They began learning the art of making mosaics last March. For eight weeks they retraced the steps of medieval artisans. They sketched their ideas, cut glass into tiny pieces and, bit by tiny bit, fit the pieces together, watching with wonder as their sketches became luminous images.

“Everything came from them,” Ortiz noted. “Insects, flowers, fish, abstract patterns — all from their imaginations.”

The students and staff are so pleased with the results that in November they will transform an inside wall of their own Bronx school with another creative mosaic.

The collaborative effort that set the project in motion began when Bronx Pro, a borough development group that provided the 9,500-square-foot lot, and DreamYard, the borough’s largest arts organization, joined forces. DreamYard is committed to using the arts to enrich the social and educational development of 8,500 K-12 students in 40 public schools.

In addition to such collaborations to transform public parks, DreamYard provides residencies for artists in all the arts, including the performing arts, and after-school programs in the arts. The organization also founded DreamYard Preparatory HS, an arts-integrated public high school that serves 370 students.

It was DreamYard’s after-school program at PS 159, where it has been actively involved in art projects for several years, that provided the training in the art of making mosaics. Since students were already creating mosaics in their classrooms, DreamYard decided that the park project would provide the perfect opportunity for students to see their work on display in a public space and to have a positive and enduring impact on their own community.

And that’s just how it has turned out.

“A memorable experience” is how Ortiz described the moment that students saw others admiring their work at the official opening of the park on Sept. 17. “They are so proud of the work they have produced, and it has given them a real sense of ownership in the park,” she said.

Hayden Lord Park, named after a DreamYard executive’s young son who died of Tay-Sachs disease, is bounded by Andrews and Tremont avenues. Plans are underway for a series of community events in the new park, including poetry slam competitions and green market days. All the collaborators — including the PS 159 school community — will be invited.