BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | In the largest student exhibition in New York City parks history, school lunchroom tables decorated with colorful, socially conscious messages enlivened the southern plaza of Union Square on Tues., May 16.
The sun was dazzling, all the better to highlight the artful tables, as middle-school students from classes in the 10 schools – two schools per borough — who created them gathered for the event.
The tables are the culmination of the nonprofit group LEAP’s annual Public Art Program. Among this year’s program participants were students from the Lower East Side’s University Neighborhood Middle School 332M. Each table, in turn, will now be exhibited for 10 weeks through August in a park near the school where students created it. In the case of 332M, its table — whose theme is “Stop Bullying Now!” — will be on view at Captain Jacob Joseph Playground, at the corner of Henry and Rutgers Sts.
In addition to cyberbullying, other themes students explored through the tables project included child abuse, gender inequality, gun violence, gang violence, pollution and animal abuse.
Ten distinguished professional artists worked with the students to help shape their themes and then create the tables, including the likes of Christo, Daze, Julie Heffernan, Risa Puno, Stephen Powers, Nancy Chunn and Maia Cruz Palileo. Past guest artists have included Chuck Close, Crash, Tom Otterness, Julian Schnabel, Lorna Simpson, Deborah Kass and James de La Vega.
Now in its tenth year, LEAP’s Public Art Program was created by Alexandra Leff, the group’s deputy director.
“This is a unique opportunity to hear what young people have to say on these issues,” Leff said.
“The school lunch table was chosen as a canvas for these works as a symbol of student conversation,” she explained.
Speaking to the project’s uplifting and instructive messages, she made a point of describing the students as “young artists and social activists.”
Among the speakers at the event was Phil Weinberg, deputy chancellor for teaching and learning at the city’s Department of Education.
“As I look at the tables, I am reminded once again that arts matter,” he said. “The work on these tables pushes us to be more thoughtful and pushes our community to address these issues.”
After being introduced by one of the adult speakers, two students from each school took the microphone to explain their tables.
“People need to shoot out more love instead of violence,” one said of their anti-violence-themed table. “If we can help change the world, so can you.”
The theme of one of the Staten Island school’s projects was “Our Watery World.”
“We chose a topic important to every living thing on Earth — water,” one of the school’s designated student speakers explained. “Most people don’t realize how finite water is — and we can lose it if don’t realize its importance every day.”
James Thorbs, principal of the Robert E. Peary School in Queens, another one of the adult speakers, told the students he, too, was wowed by the tables and their messages of positivity.
“I am so happy that my world is in your hands,” he said.
