Judging by the enthusiastic audience that erupted into cheers following each remarkable act during performances at the annual PS/MS 95 Arts Festival on a recent Friday, it is clear the Sheila Mencher School in Van Cortlandt Village is doing its best to keep the arts incorporated into education.

With the city’s budget limitations and stress on test scores, it is hard to make arts a priority in public school. But Principal Serge Marshall Davis is determined to see the arts continue to thrive at 95. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of a nonprofit organization of teaching artists called DreamYard and Melaynne Vestal and Nick Merchant, who make up the Arts Leadership Team, the public school has been able to create, improve, and sustain arts curriculum for the past several years.

Merchant, a seventh grade English teacher, speaks of “the intrinsic benefit of just having an outlet for these kids,” pointing out that the arts programs give students a chance to show talents that aren’t necessarily tested by state examinations.

DreamYard, which brings in professional artists who work with classroom teachers in a partnership through the Bronx Arts Learning Community, has been at PS/MS 95 for eight years now. Vestal and Merchant have run the arts festival for the past three.

Student actors, dancers, and other performers prepare all year for the arts festival in the spring. This year, poetry was added to the show. As it is created, students’ visual artwork is framed and added to the walls inside the building. The result is a large-scale art exhibition throughout the school’s halls. More recent pieces, ranging from rain sticks to family portraits, are displayed on tables in the lobby.

Merchant gives credit to Davis for inspiring the change from the empty and barren walls of five years ago. Vestal, a first grade teacher who also formed an after-school hip-hop group, also sees Davis as instrumental in supporting the growth of the arts programs.

Davis, however, only talks about himself as part of a team.

“Even with all the budget cuts that city schools have endured, we find ways to be fiscally conservative and maintain the integrity of arts education within the school. We’re fortunate, with collective efforts, to be able to do that,” he says.

Creativity is evident at the school, from the big arts festival to everyday activities like door-decorating competitions where students have gone above and beyond. One class constructed a big three-dimensional tree to convey a rainforest theme.

At the festival, several groups showed off their skills with choreographed dance routines to modern songs by artists like LMFAO and Rihanna, eighth-graders recited their own original poetry, and the after-school drama club acted out a short comedic play. This all occurs in front of a colorful backdrop with another large tree that reads “Creativity blooms at 95.”

Out of all the young performers, the fifth grade ballroom dancers stood out. They danced a traditional tango and then a lively swing number, inspiring thunderous applause from the crowd. Also incredibly impressive is Assistant Principal Eileen Rivera’s chorus, only in its second year. Both students and parents could appreciate their fun renditions of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” and, fittingly, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”