Last month, a collaboration between the physical education and art departments brought together the PE heART Initiative, transforming the gym into an educational art gallery. With recognition of American Heart Month, the PE heART Initiative aims to raise awareness about cardiovascular health, and promotes students to participate in different activities related to art and physical movement.

The idea for the event came from physical education teacher Ray Adamkiewicz, who said he wanted to reintroduce and promote cardiovascular awareness. He said he also hoped to create a cross disciplinary experience that brought students together in a new way. 

Mr. Adamkiewicz said he collaborated and planned the event with art teacher Antonio Montalvo, believing their subject areas and teaching styles would complement each other. “I always had a vision of working with another teacher from a different department to bring students together and make it one big opportunity of learning,” he said. 

Mr. Adamkiewicz said he hoped students would leave the event with a greater awareness of their own bodies and cardiovascular health, especially at a young age. He added that the initiative was meant to help students recognize the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Mr. Montalvo led the artistic portion of the event, and said that students rotated through several stations, each station offering different ways to teach heart health. “They had to take their heartbeat and put the visual image of what their pulse looks like,” he said, noting that students expressed this using paint and paper canvases and photography. 

Mr. Montalvo also emphasized that the experience itself mattered more than the final artistic product. “It wasn’t about making something perfect. It was about the movement, the collaboration, and getting students to engage with heart health in a meaningful way,” he said.

Throughout the class sessions, 150 to 200 students went to the gym to participate. Mr. Montalvo said that the level of engagement exceeded his expectations. “By the end, there was no…[empty space] left,” he said. More paper canvases had to be added as students continued expanding their work. 

He described the final display as being similar to a modern day art gallery driven by creativity and collaboration. 

Freshman Frances Hung, a student in Mr. Montalvo’s art class, said the project helped her connect her physical movement to her creative process. “I interpreted my own heartbeat when turning it into movements by counting the amount of heartbeats in a minute,” she said. Frances said that she spent most of her time at the photography station, where she enjoyed capturing the art. 

Sophomore Linda Wang, who also participated during her second band physical education class, said the initiative changed how she viewed physical activity. “It made the movements feel more intentional,” she said, explaining that she became more aware of how different motions affected her heart rate in real time. 

Linda also highlighted the collaborative aspect of the project. “Instead of trying to compete for the best drawing, it felt more [like a] collaborative [effort],” she said.