It's extremely rare that a high school student would ever get to see their work in a gallery setting, making each piece on the walls of the Kala Art Institute Gallery a special glimpse into a young artist’s talent. On Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, attendees witnessed a breathtaking collection of art along with a congregation of artists gathered to enjoy each other's company and creations at the Berkeley High School Arts and Humanities Academy (AHA) art show. The show at the Kala Art Institute Gallery was a beautiful celebration of expressive and communal art, with what one AHA staff member predicts to have been six hundred people attending on opening night. Parents, students, staff, and community members came together to appreciate what the students of AHA — from a wide variety of different classes — had created in the past year.
Josefine Runde is a BHS junior in AHA who had her art on display at the art show. “I just like anything artsy, creative and alternative. I'm definitely really glad I joined (AHA),” Runde says. She just joined AHA this last year, and constantly draws inspiration from the artists surrounding her. The art she created for the gallery was a self portrait, with what she called “weird colors” that she associates with herself. “It's just kind of representing how I see myself,” she said. Runde mentioned how she decided to put her art in the gallery because she’s never done anything like it before, and wanted to try something new. She said to have her art up feels really weird. “But also I'm really proud,” she said.
While Runde had an art piece hanging on the wall, many juniors contributed fashionable clothing items, fitted on mannequins in the center of the gallery. “It’s a stained glass outfit that's made with a bunch of different stained glass shades, and it's kind of made in bits and fragments,” Ernst Wang, a BHS junior in AHA, said about an outfit he helped create. “The different pieces aren't inherently impressive in themselves. They can come together and make something beautiful,” he said. Wang believed that the Kala gallery show was a glimpse into the minds and imaginations of the students in AHA. “It shows another side of (BHS). It shows our differences.”
One AHA alumnus, Collin McAllister, has stayed connected to the Kala gallery even after graduating from Berkeley High School. He transferred to AHA from BIHS in his junior year, and had his art in the Kala gallery event for his last two years of high school. “This event is really a partnership between AHA and Kala Art Institute, where you're exposing the public to young artists in a professional space. And it's really important for young artists' careers,” McAllister said. His career in the art world began because of the Kala gallery show. “Having an exhibition on your artist's resume is such a huge deal. Especially at a young age. It was a huge deal for me.”
Miriam Stahl, a founder of AHA and a drawing teacher, helped organize the event. “With AHA, I wanted to help create a space where artists could thrive both in their art making and in their academic classes. And to view their art through an academic lens and their academics through an arts lens, so that it's an integrated experience at school,” she said. Stahl has been teaching at BHS for 30 years, and started the annual AHA Kala gallery tradition. “I think to keep arts and culture moving into the future, it's really important to have mentors, and I take that responsibility really seriously in helping students,” she said.
Stahl felt a lot of pride for all the work her students created and showcased. She believes it’s a really meaningful experience for them to have their work in a world renowned gallery. “Kala Institute is known around the world as a center for the arts in the Bay Area. The work that hangs on the wall there is taken really seriously,” Stahl said. She said that it’s a group effort to pull off the gallery event every year, and it’s made her career at BHS so much richer to be able to work with others. “A lot of the projects on display are interdisciplinary and happen in science, English, and history (classes) also,” Stahl said. Students are able to incorporate art and their knowledge of art into almost every class in AHA.
The Kala gallery show has historically led BHS students to appreciate and respect the professional art world even more, and in some cases, join it. This year was no exception, as numerous artists proudly showcased their work to fellow artists, loved ones, and the broader Berkeley community at large.