DETROIT – The Fox Theatre was buzzing all day Wednesday with singers, dancers, a drum line, and all the big-show energy ahead of the 57th Annual Evening of Fine Arts, a concert and art exhibition featuring the best performers and visual artists from the Detroit Public Schools.
“It’s a huge celebration of the arts,” Andrew McGuire, DPSCD Deputy Director of Fine and Performing Arts, said. “It’s a huge celebration of student voices being lifted onto one of our largest stages here in the city.”
More than 700 young men and women are there for the yearly showcase of the best and brightest performers and visual artists, featuring performances by students from Renaissance, Cass Tech, Martin Luther King, Mumford, and Henry Ford high schools, along with the Detroit School of Arts, the John King Performing Arts Academy, and the Duke Ellington Conservatory of Music and Art.
It also highlighted the artwork of kids from across DPS.
“The violin gives me a sense of peace,” Addison Lackey, a junior at Cass Tech, said.
She has played the violin since the age of 4 and performed in a concert of the Karl Jenkins orchestral piece Palladio.
“It allows me to connect musically,” Lackey said. “I put like all my emotions out to basically share the love to not only myself, but to the crowd.”
Sterling Lawson is a senior at Cass Tech and is performing at the event for the third time.
He compared it to an All-Star Game where all the DPS kids can come together in the name of music and art.
“To be a part of something this big and have every single school come together like this, Lawson, 18, said. ”It kind of takes away from the rivalries, and you get to be in harmony for just a minute.”
As the show nears its 60th anniversary, it’s seen as a testament to making sure the arts have a place in the city.
“Detroit is the birthplace of creativity and the arts for so many different genres, for so many different art forms,” McGuire said. “This is a continuation of our legacy.”