BETHLEHEM, PA— The Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts (Charter Arts), will host a professional photography exhibit, Oui, Bethlehem– featuring the work of Ron Yoshida for the month of July. There will be a free opening reception on Friday, July 6, 2018, from 6-8 PM in the school’s Corpora Art Gallery as part of South Bethlehem’s First Friday celebration.
Yoshida says his exhibit features 22 photographs of people who have ‘touched the quality of life’ in Bethlehem. From a teacher to an architect to an industrial age icon, these photos all have special meaning to Yoshida as he highlights their individual contributions to the Bethlehem community.
“These are faces and stories that not everyone may be familiar with; they may be friends, neighbors, colleagues, or someone whom you have passed on the street. They are part of the mosaic that makes our quality of life what it is,” says Yoshida.
The Corpora Gallery, located on the school’s campus at 321 East 3rd Street in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, operates as a professional gallery and is host to both student and professional art exhibits throughout the year. The exhibits are available to view by the public during First Friday receptions or by appointment.
For more information about this exhibit and Charter Arts, visit the school’s website at www.CharterArts.org or call 610-868-2971.
ABOUT RON YOSHIDA:
Ron Yoshida was born in Los Angeles (1948). He received his degrees from the University of Southern California. He completed a fulfilling professional career in the field of education that began in 1974 at UCLA, included the US Department of Education, Fordham University, Queens College- City University of New York, Lehigh University and ended in 2015 after 15 months with the Qatar Foundation in Doha, Qatar. A longtime amateur photographer, he has sought to capture beauty in people, and places. This exhibit is a celebration of Bethlehem, the hometown of his and his wife Sharon’s heart.
ABOUT THE LEHIGH VALLEY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS (Charter Arts):
The Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, opened in 2003, is an audition-based, tuition-free, public charter school that provides a comprehensive curriculum for high school students, grades 9-12, who have a passion for the arts. Students major in one of seven artistic areas: dance, theater, vocal music, instrumental music, literary arts, figure skating or visual art.
Charter Arts’ rigorous curriculum fosters both academic and artistic excellence for its students. The school’s impressive PA School Performance Profile (SPP) Academic Score, AP and Keystone exam statistics, student SAT scores, prestigious artistic accolades, and graduation rate are a testament to the outstanding education Charter Arts provides.
The school offers a full complement of core courses at the College Preparatory (CP), Honors, and Advanced Placement (AP) levels. The course catalog consists of more than 200 courses ranging from traditional core courses (math, science, social studies, world languages, etc.) to college-level courses in the arts.
The Class of 2017 and the Class of 2018 earned the highest combined proficiency scores on the Keystone Exams of all public and charter schools in the Lehigh Valley. In May 2018, Charter Arts earned a Silver Award for its impressive ranking on the U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools Rankings. Charter Arts is a Title I High Achievement school, placing it in the top 5 % of all Title I high schools in Pennsylvania.
Close to 600 students from across Pennsylvania travel into Bethlehem daily to attend Charter Arts. The student body consists of students who hail from towns as far north as the Poconos, as far south as the Philadelphia suburbs, and as far west as Lancaster County. Many students travel two to three hours per day to attend this innovative school.
Information & Image Provided By:
Ann Gillette
Manager of Public Relations and Media
Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts
321 East 3rd Street, Bethlehem, PA 18015
www.CharterArts.org
