"We're in this love together," uses major tarot archaina imagery to illustrate queer communities/families of color and their vibrant legacy. The touch on the intergenerational connections and relationships that exist within queer communities of color communities. With this focus on queer people of color (QPOC), the team used the tarot deck to explore archetypes within the QPOC ballroom communities and cultures. The double entendre of a "House" or "deck" of cards, with relation to ballroom houses and the familial relationships that exist within such houses. "We're in this love together” draw from the language, vocabulary, cultural icons and heroes, videos, and drawings that the Groundswell youth researched and experienced. The banners are inclusive and specific, vibrant and loaded with a rich history.
 
The figures represented are Tha Mutha, Tha Fatha, Tha Luvahs, Tha Children, La Muerte, and Tha Fool.

Created for public display at Ellis Island, “Our American Narrative Continues” is a six-part mural panel series celebrating the rich history of immigration to the United States.
 
As part of Groundswell’s Teen Empowerment Mural Apprenticeship (TEMA), Groundwell’s youth artist team was amazed to discover that nearly 12 million immigrants poured through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. During their research, they learned that more than 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island, the nation's chief gateway during the years 1892 to 1924. The students explored the public dialogue about immigration today, and asked themselves if America is still a nation which embraces its history as a country built by immigrants
 
The panel series is split between a historic narrative, which illustrates the journey to and through Ellis Island, the immigrant identity during the early 20th century, and the historic notion of the American Dream, and contemporary panels, which explore the process to become an American today, the fragmented identify experienced by many current immigrants, and the notion of the American Dream in the 21st century. The historic panels have an aged, sepia-toned aesthetic, balanced by the vibrant, vivid color palette of the contemporary ones. Throughout the mural design, a butterfly motif suggests that freedom and migration is both essential to the human experience and beautiful and natural.
 
Ultimately, viewers of the panels are invited to question how the treasured notion of the American Dream, where once hard work gave the promise of personal achievement and success, has given way to one rife with challenges, obstacles, and barriers to success for new immigrants.
 
 
 
 
⇒ Download educational curriculum (pdf)
 
⇒ Visit Ellis Island's multimedia website (link)

Each week, a Groundswell team met with senior citizens twice for two hours to plan and execute our mural. The team began the process with a combination of reviewing the history of Los Sures and sharing stories of growing up in South Williamsburg. Participants brought in photos, swapped accounts of their youth and feelings of changes happening in the community. Developing a slue of imagery from these discussions, the team researched murals and conjured up a list of pictures it could use to communicate a visual story, relatable to all who would experience our mural. The Lead and Assistant Artist then developed the design and as a group the team all voted on appropriate imagery, text and composition. After a few revisions, everyone began to paint! It was a very democratic experience that included a lot of discussion, laughs and important aesthetic decision making. Throughout the whole process, everyone tried very hard to represent not only the experiences of the participants, but also the meaning of our work within the shifting cultural landscape of South Williamsburg.

Groundswell and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) designed the Traffic Safety Sign Residency Program to engage public school students in exploring traffic safety information through the creation of original street signs. Signs designed collaboratively by students at each of our partner schools are digitally rendered by Groundswell artists, fabricated by NYC DOT’s Sign Shop, and temporarily installed in local locations students identify as in need of traffic signage. Through this program, students learn how signs and symbols can work to communicate ideas and explore visual art techniques to develop graphic images. These signs then help increase safety awareness and prevent accidents in locations around each school community. The IS 298 sign reminds drivers of the dangers of distracted and impaired driving, especially texting while driving and DWI. 

With the support of NYC Council Member Jumanne Williams through the Department of Cultural Affairs' Cultural Afterschool Adventures program, twelve PS/IS109 students worked with two Groundswell artists to create a series of anti-violence mural panels for the LIRR Underpass near their school in East Flatbush. The students researched, designed, and fabricated the mural panels over the course of sixteen afterschool sessions. 
 
 
The imagery in the eight panels addresses the causes and effects of violence in our communities, portrayed as a spectrum with violence at one end and the counter-balances to violence at the opposite end. Three of the panels feature the components of a healthy community, including creativity, nature and green space, and a nurturing family, and three panels at the opposite end of that spectrum portray violence and crime, innocent victims of gun violence, and the shattered homes that result. 
 
The panels were unveiled at a public ceremony attended by PS/IS 109 students and staff, participants' families, community members, and Council Member Williams.    

This project, created during live painting sessions at Industry City for NYCX Design Week 2014, visualizes the history of Blick Art Materials, Utrecht Art Supplies, and the Industry City complex. The imagery depicts art supply manufacturing and retail, historical imagery celebrating Industry City and Sunset Park, and the Utrecht and Blick Association’s teacher-student relationship model.
 
The mural’s design uses bold, industrial-style imagery to show the history of each brand set against the urban Brooklyn landscape. The use of gears symbolizes the industrial process and their reoccurance ties the four mural panels together. Bold primary colors are used to highlight the vibrant ‘now’ against the sepia-toned contrasting landscape of the past.
 
The first panel shows paint being manufactured in a factory set against an urban landscape, the second panel depicts the shelving and stocking process inside Blick Art Supply stores set against the historic Brooklyn Bridge, the third panel shows the beginnings of Industry City circa the 1930’s, and the final panel shows the student-teacher relationship that the brands represent.

Groundswell and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) designed the Traffic Safety Sign Residency Program to engage public school students in exploring traffic safety information through the creation of original street signs. Signs designed collaboratively by students at each of our partner schools are digitally rendered by Groundswell artists, fabricated by NYC DOT’s Sign Shop, and temporarily installed in local locations students identify as in need of traffic signage. Through this program, students learn how signs and symbols can work to communicate ideas and explore visual art techniques to develop graphic images. These signs then help increase safety awareness and prevent accidents in locations around each school community. The MS 51 sign reminds drivers of the dangers of distracted driving, especially texting while driving. 

Inspired by the multicultural nature of Corona, this mural focuses on youth unity and how it might contribute to the future development of Corona. The team was particularly interested in how empowered youth can assist in shaping today’s cultural landscapes for the better. With a strong emphasis on the many cultures that make up the neighborhood, the mural celebrates the contributions Corona’s diversity has made to the history of the community. Depicted in the mural are important landmarks such as the Flushing Meadows Park Unisphere as well as representations of Mexican, Tibetan, Moroccan, and Bengali populations that make up a large part of the neighborhood.

Through this project, incarcerated teen artists had the unique opportunity to directly impact the jail environment which incarcerates them by transforming an industrial hallway into a blank canvas. The teen artists began by reflecting on the learning they have done in their lives to date, and then identified continued learning opportunities which might be harnessed to positively impact their futures. Through this process, the youth artists hoped to create a finished mural that would inspire the same reflective practice in their peers and encourage future students incarcerated at Rikers Island to imagine new opportunities in their future.

Young female artists, working in partnership with Groundswell and Food Bazaar Supermarket, created “Guided Gateways,” a monumental mural designed to spark dialogue about reproductive health in Bushwick. The public artwork presents a new perspective on supporting young women’s growth and development through self-love and affirmative decisions. Teen artists, participants in Groundswell’s Voices Her’d Visionaries leadership development program, hope to extend the conversation about positive reproductive health to the care networks of local young women.
 
The mural was created through an intensive research, design, and fabrication process, which began in spring 2014 during an afterschool research session and continued through Groundswell’s flagship Summer Leadership Institute. The mural is rich in allegorical symbolism related to fertility and reproduction. The dominant central image is a pair of goddess-like figures. Connected to one another in Warrior Pose, the elder figure guides the younger safely through the gateway of womanhood. Inspired by the collaborative dynamism of the project team, the figures remind viewers of our shared responsibility to mentor and support young women within our own communities.