Miami student artists, musicians will showcase their work at Pinecrest Gardens
Student musicians and artists will showcase their work Saturday at the inaugural 2021 South Dade Schools ArtsFest.
The program will feature live performances from students at the University of Miami, Florida International University and Miami Dade College, while high school students will perform online through big screens, in accordance with COVID-19 guidelines.
The ArtsFest will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Pinecrest Gardens, 11000 Red Rd.
The Pinecrest City Music Project is behind the event. The organization was founded in 2018 as a community orchestra incorporating public schools in the Palmetto area. As it grew, the nonprofit established music and mentorship programs with more than 500 K-12 students across five Miami-Dade schools.
“It will be a symposium of public school visual and performing arts programs throughout Miami Dade County,” said Daniel Solomon, the project’s executive and musical director. “This is an opportunity for visual and performing arts programs to showcase their work to the community in a very family-oriented, COVID-friendly environment.”
Last year, the county’s Department of Cultural Affairs issued a grant to the music program.
“The 2021 South Dade School Arts Fest was selected through the Department of Cultural Affairs’ competitive grants program that recognizes outstanding work in the arts in our community,” said Michael Spring, director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs. “The extraordinary initiative demonstrated by Daniel Solomon and the Pinecrest City Music Project earned the recognition and county grant support.
“Through open, familyoriented events, the festival is an outstanding way to highlight the transformative effect that the arts have on kids’ lives,”
Spring added. “The parade, performances and displays are testimony to the power of the arts to make education exciting and meaningful to students.”
Although K-12 students are only able to perform online, university bands will perform at the event.
“We are fortunate to have the support of college performing artists — most of whom are Dade schools alumni — to spread the positive influence of the arts on our local community,” said Solomon.
Festival attendees can create a mural from an open canvas, collect objects in nature for an art sensory project and use recycled materials to make musical instruments.
The program also will be livestreamed.
“We are calling this a unification effort. It is a way to become immersed once again in the cultural arts,” said Solomon. “We want to be able to bond our community, which has been in isolation and separated for so long, through the arts.”
The festival will require everyone to wear masks and to stay six feet apart. People’s temperature will be taken at the door.