Throughout the entire month of February, the artwork of 13 Southern Lehigh portfolio students is on display at the Allentown Art Museum as a part of the museum’s celebration of Black History Month. The celebration includes artwork, guest speakers, poetry readings, and films. For the exhibition, Southern Lehigh students painted portraits of famous African-American poets specifically chosen by art teacher Mrs. Courtney Bathgate and the museum curator.

“My own work has been displayed at the museum, so I wanted to have the same opportunities for the portfolio students,” Mrs. Bathgate said. “Once we got our gallery secured, a theme was generated for the exhibition by myself and the museum curator. Since the paintings were going to be displayed in February, and there were going to be readings from African American poets, I decided we should honor some of those poets visually.”

Each student was assigned a certain poet and required to complete an essay on the poet’s background and influence. Then, the students created greyscale portraits of their poet, with the painting’s backdrop featuring lines from their most famous works.

“I was assigned Daniel Webster Davis to paint. To be honest, I was pleased when I learned more about him and read a lot of his work,” senior Allie Janda said. “It was all so moving!”

“I’m pretty excited [about having my art in this exhibition],” senior Sloane Sexton said. “I’ve never had my art shown before, and I’m really proud of the piece, too. Our families as well as the public are welcome.”

The exhibition can be viewed in the Auxiliary Auditorium Wednesdays through Sundays, with free admission Sunday and Thursday nights from 4 to 8 p.m.