Students at Patchogue’s Holy Angels School are looking for public spaces to display their art, April 1 through April 15. The event is being organized by school parent Bernadette DeLeva, art teacher Cindy Rahner, and principal Jeannine Stewart.

DeLeva said she and her family are new to Holy Angels. While this is her first time organizing the event at this particular school, she has done it before as a member of the Patchogue-Medford School District and FAME (Friends of Art and Music Education) in 2016, and again in 2019.

DeLeva said she brought the idea to a parent-teacher partnership meeting and brought the idea to the group, suggesting the school get some student artwork out into the Village of Patchogue.

Her initial idea was to stick with the local restaurants, she said, but interest has grown beyond dining establishments.

The project was originally going to span Main Street, down Route 112 and up to South Country Road, DeLeva explained, but will now expand farther. Rahner is putting together work that she’s created with students from September through March, and DeLeva will start collecting the art and matting the work. The pieces will be labeled with the student’s first name, last initial, and a Holy Angels sticker, DeLeva said. Participating businesses will agree to display student artwork for the two-week period.

“It’s just a nice way to get the artwork out there. It was never intended to be a contest,” DeLeva said. “I asked the art teacher [to] look for someone who maybe loves art, and maybe they have a little difficulty manipulating the materials, but just love art. I think it’s very inspiring.”

As of now, DeLeva said there are about 12 businesses that are looking to participate, and she would ideally like to have about three pieces per establishment.

“I’ll just [divide] them up and bring them to a location and then they can place them where they see fit—usually in a storefront window, which is nice, so passersby’s eyes can see it,” she said.

“Besides giving these students the thrill of having their artwork displayed in a prominent location, you will also have the benefit of attracting friends and family of these young artists to visit your business locations,” said Patchogue Chamber of Commerce executive director David Kennedy.