Student Voice Summit, See Me Festival 2025: SPS Artists Taking Over Essex Street May 22
Student Voice Summit, See Me Festival Student Art Installation slated for Thursday, May 22 at the Peabody Essex Museum, Old Town Hall
SALEM (Apr. 17, 2025) – The 2025 Salem Public Schools Student Voice Summit and the See Me Festival Student Art Installation are scheduled for Thursday, May 22 (5:30 p.m.) at the Peabody Essex Museum.
The Student Voice Summit will take place from 5:30-7 p.m., in the Museum’s East India Marine Hall. The See Me Festival, which showcases various artwork based on student identities and the District’s core values, will be on display at the PEM’s East India Marine Hall while student art from Fine Arts Department will be exhibited at the Old Town Hall, a short walk away along Essex Street.
VIEW: 2024 Student Voice Summit/See Me Festival in photos
Admission to both the Summit and See Me Festival is free through the Groups Hub Gallery entrance on Essex Street. The event includes light refreshments and music provided by DJ T-Real.
Born out of the partnership with The Equity Imperative, the Student Voice Summit showcases students in grades 4–12 presenting research-based activism projects centered on a school or community inequity challenge, as well as a set of action steps. The Summit highlights the students as storytellers, organizers, and advocates, and offers a platform for them to share student-driven solutions to address educational inequity.
The See Me Festival captures the District’s core values of belonging, equity, and opportunity through all forms of art – performance, traditional, poetry, video, photography, ceramics and crochet – and will be on display from Thursday, May 22 through Monday, May 26.
The exhibits at the PEM and Old Town Hall feature more than 200 pieces of artwork from Salem students representing all 11 schools.
Among the art to be displayed includes:
- Bates Elementary School: The Bates Crochet Club, an after-school club in its first year, will showcase the work of its grades 4 and 5 students. Additionally, grades 2 and 4 students will display more than 100 pieces of ceramic identity pendants and jewelry and photos of the process.
- Saltonstall School: Reflecting their culture, school life and home life, 10-15 Saltonstall students will share their vision of themselves on strips of 4×14 paper through photos and words. In addition, grades 3-8 students will share in writing and artwork showcasing the best part of them.
- Bentley Academy Innovation School: BAIS students will display three newspapers written and edited by Bentley 21C students this year titled ‘Our School,’ ‘Our Celebrations,’ and ‘Our Community.’
About Salem Public Schools
Salem Public Schools is an urban public school district in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem is a small, diverse city with a proud maritime and immigrant history. Our leaders and our teachers are all passionate about education and understand the urgency of improving student achievement with equity and social-emotional needs as the lens we view all of our work through. We respect and value the racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity of our students and their families, and have a strong commitment to the Salem community. Salem Public Schools staff serve all of our students, regardless of ability or language. Salem Public Schools enrolls approximately 4,000 students across its eleven schools.
