Riverhead art students create 16-panel portrait of the dancer Katherine Dunham

Riverhead High School art students created a 16-panel portrait of the dancer Katherine Dunham for the sixth annual East End Arts Council Martin Luther King Jr. Portrait Project. 

The portrait project is a collaborative program launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to celebrate Black History Month. Riverhead has participated since the project began, according to art teacher Jo-Ann Dellaposta. East End Arts says the project brings together Long Island high school students to create large-scale portraits honoring civil rights leaders and other influential Black figures.  

Students in Dellaposta’s and Selena Pagliarulo’s art classes began work on the portrait in late September or early October and completed it by mid-January, Dellaposta said. Each student created one or two panels, which were assembled into the finished piece.

This year’s portrait has been on display since Feb. 6 and remains on view through March 29 at Floyd Memorial Library, 539 First St., Greenport.

Dellaposta said Riverhead chose Katherine Dunham this year because of her “expressive arts background” and her strength in bringing that work into the community. In past years, the district has tried to focus on female activists, selecting subjects from a list provided through the project.

Dunham was a groundbreaking dancer, choreographer and anthropologist whose research in the Caribbean helped shape what became known as the Dunham Technique. She also founded one of the first self-sustaining Black dance companies in the United States and was widely recognized for linking performance, scholarship and activism.  

Among the honors she received were Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts.  

The participating students were Alexandra Acritelli, Genesis Arizaga-Quiros, Katheryn Avarez Guerra, Kallin Coggins, Victoria Cole, Jessie Falero, Graciela Franco Guevara, Pheyton Japa, Sage Jones and Allison Tuba.