Miami Lakes Educational Center celebrates Art Week with variety

Miami is a world of color – vibrant sunsets and evergreen palm trees, tropical landscapes that ornament our multicultural, multiethnic and bold neighborhoods full of bold personalities. Every December, color dances around as Miami Art Week and Art Basel comes to town.
During December, Miami becomes the epicenter of the realm of art, hosting over 20 international art fairs and more than 1,200 galleries – featuring thousands of passionate artists. Miami Lakes Educational Center (MLEC) joins the fray as it hosts an annual MLEC Art Week.
“It’s not Art Basel, but it’s here, it’s free and there’s a greater sense of community [because] your friends are here,” said Kristen Gonzalez, a senior in the Communication Academy who worked to plan and execute this year’s events.
There was a week of events geared towards inspiring Jaguars’ creativity. From chalk drawings on the basketball court, to mimes, to even finger painting, the week tried to remind students how much they loved to draw before they began feeling self-conscious.
“At MLEC, Art Week is more than just an event, it’s a reminder, a reminder that art is fun and can be interactive, it’s for everyone,” added Gonzalez.
At MLEC, there’s been an intense focus on STEM and career training. While these skills are of course important, alongside planning for the future, art and music provides students not only an educational experience, but a creative outlet.
“Logic is pushed onto us so much, we forget that we have an imagination, which is super important,” said Gonzalez.
Fortunately, MLEC’s Art Week allows students, teachers and faculty members to forget about all their work for 45 minutes during lunch and have some creative fun. Art Week kicked off with chalk doodling as Jaguars flooded the basketball courtyard and sat on the floor. With giggles and smiles all around, teenagers channeled their childhood energy, sketching flowers, their own shadows and favorite cartoon characters as chalk dust danced in the air between their laughter and photographs.
The courtyard remains covered in beautiful designs, messages, and memories – a brainchild from every participant.
“It’s crucial to show people that art isn’t just about drawing or painting, it’s about the emotion and effort you put towards it too, “ said student Helen Suarez, another Communications Academy student who helped plan MLEC Art Week this year.
Art Week had paint tattoos, finger painting, dance, performance art, and all of it left people with paint splats on their shirts and cheek-to-cheek smiles on their selfies with MLEC’s mimes. Students laughed, painted, enjoyed art the way art is meant to be enjoyed, for its own creative sake.