In the spring of 2004, Groundswell initiated a bronze relief sculpture project in collaboration with Brooklyn Heights Montessori and The School for International Studies. The theme of the project was unity, because young people from the two schools, both located on the same street, had had no social contact with each other prior to this program. The team of twelve youth and two teachers who participated in the project represented some of the diverse communities living in and around Boerum Hill. Each bronze relief design was a collaboration by two students. Throughout the creation of their bronze pieces, the youth became adept at explaining the complex artistic process and the steps they took to develop their images. The project became a source of pride for the youth artists, as an artwork that both beautified the neighborhood and informed the community about important issues affecting their lives. The finished pieces were installed throughout the neighborhood, along with written statements from the artists.

Created by young women participating in Groundswell’s Voices Her’d Visionaries program, “I Deal, I Dream, I Do” was designed for the side of CHIPS, a transitional housing center for homeless women and children in Gowanus, Brooklyn. “I Deal, I Dream, I Do” seeks to honestly represent the struggles, hard work, and accomplishments of young women today. Although too often women encounter many obstacles in their paths to success, the mural sends a clear message to young women in the community that through study, the arts, community support, and sheer dedication, they can fulfill their dreams. And through a commitment to themselves and their community, women can far exceed their own expectations, just as the participants in this project did. Located in a neighborhood in Brooklyn still suffering from entrenched economic problems, the mural serves as a testimony to the empowering and revitalizing impact  that young people with artistic skills can make on the community.

To celebrate the opening of its new headquarters in 2003, Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC) commissioned Groundswell to paint a mural on the adjacent building to help lead visitors from 4th Avenue around the corner to the doors of the new center. Groundswell began research for the mural through a series of focus groups with each of the departments that make up FAC. Each department was asked to propose a representation of its role in the FAC community and present it as a living tableau. Photographs of these tableaus were then used to develop a mural that highlights the many facets of FAC's work. FAC celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2002, and the mural also features a visual timeline of significant organization milestones. For example, a truck license plate in the image reads 1995, a nod to the year FAC incorporated Red Hook on the Road, a program that trains commercial truck drivers and helps them find employment.

Groundswell youth artists participating in our Teen Empowerment Mural Apprenticeship (TEMA) program created a collaborative mural for the offices of the New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN). To launch the project, the apprentice muralists were first introduced to the history of mural making through slide presentations. They were then taken on a tour of New York City murals by veteran muralist Janet Braun-Reinitz. NYCAHN, whose office is close to Groundswell’s studio, was excited to be selected as a community partner for this project. The group of teen artists researched NYCAHN, first by learning more about HIV and AIDS, and then by participating in a large public meeting at NYCAHN. At this meeting, the TEMA apprentices led a discussion about what the members of NYCAHN would like to see in their mural. The meeting provided the youth muralists plenty of ideas for imagery to design the mural. The finished piece was created as a canvas banner and installed at NYCAHN’s offices on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn.The mural expresses a passionate commitment to fighting for the LGBT movement, no matter how much resistance there may be.

Groundswell collaborated with the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation to create a six-story mural on its Lead Safe House Building. The youth artists spent the first month of the project learning about the Lead Safe House and its mission to educate the Washington Heights and Inwood communities about the dangers of lead poisoning. Together, these two neighborhoods have more children at-risk for lead poisoning than any other neighborhood in New York City. The mural celebrates the potential health and wellness of the community while educating viewers about the dangers of environmental poisoning. The threat of lead paint poisoning is represented by the chipping paint that frames the bottom portion of the mural. An urban landscape rises behind the mural’s central figures and is transformed into a giant palm tree at the top of the composition. The palm fronds embrace and shelter a group of children and adults that are healthy and playful. The youth artists transferred the mural design to the wall using a grid system, working responsibly and safely together on nine levels of scaffolding.

For this mural, Groundswell youth collaborated with Fourth World Movement, a network of people in poverty and those from other backgrounds who work in partnership towards overcoming the exclusion and injustice of persistent poverty. The mural is split into three different themes, each topic occupying a separate wall. The left wall shows the conditions of poverty with reference to both the history of the East Village and the shanty towns in France where the Fourth World Movement began in the 1950s. A family moves away from the conditions of poverty, accompanied by Father Joseph Wresinski, Founder of the Movement. The center section directly addresses the Movement’s projects and the impact they have made on the community. The final section depicts community empowerment, featuring a group of children from TAPORI, the youth empowerment project of the Movement. Specia thanks to the many volunteers who contributed their time and talent to the mural.

“Voices” was created as part of a restoration project in the Frank White Community Garden in Harlem. The mural was constructed on the back fence of the community garden on a series of panels and is inspired by the mission of the Brotherhood Sister Sol to provide "Positivity, Community, Knowledge, and Future." As part of Groundswell’s Summer Leadership Institute, the team worked throughout July to build art skills and develop imagery to bring to life the ideas outlined in the Brotherhood Sister Sol’s mission. By working in the community and participating in the day-to-day use of the garden, the teens in the mural team gained a better sense of how urban communities can be revitalized through our shared efforts. The imagery of the mural - in which communities come together to struggle for rights, amenities, access to the media, and to make their voices heard - resonates with the active care that local residents take in maintaining the garden for the enjoyment of the entire community.

Wyckoff Gardens is a public housing development located in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn. As the Wyckoff Gardens Community Center looked for opportunities to support the community’s revitalization efforts, the Center's Director contacted Groundswell to create a series of murals. “Roots and Wings” is the second mural in this series created by Groundswell's Teen Empowerment Mural Apprenticeship (TEMA) afterschool program. In envisioning the mural, the community spoke of four critical themes that they wanted the mural to address: Unity, Family, Employment, and Education. The TEMA team related these themes to Civil Rights journalist Hodding Carter, Jr.’s famous adage, "There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.” Unity and family give us roots; employment and education give us wings. Inspired by this idea, the team created a lyrical mural which uses a large bird as its central image. The bird soars on leaf-like wings and is also rooted in the earth. The portraits included in the mural showcase residents of Wyckoff Gardens.

“The Higher We Climb” was created through Groundswell’s Voices Her’d Visionaries program for young women. During the mural design phase, the Brooklyn Museum provided the participants a private museum tour, where they had the opportunity to see Judy Chicago's “The Dinner Party” in storage prior to its permanent installation in the Museum’s new Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. The youth artists used “The Dinner Party” as a starting point to look back at the obstacles women of all ages, races, and cultures have had to overcome throughout history, from witch-hunts to slavery to winning the right to vote. From looking at this history, the young women then examined the role of women in today's society, with a focus on the ongoing need to challenge and overcome continued discrimination and violence towards women. The group decided that they wanted the mural to show that each of us, male and female, has the power to achieve real social change and advance society for the better by acting together around a common need.

“Our Doors Are Open To You” communicates the services offered by Lutheran Medical Center’s Sunset Park Family Support Center to visitors, and celebrates themes of health, education, family, and community. The mural was created by a team of thirteen immigrant adults enrolled in the center's English as a Second Language (ESL) program. The design phase included conversations about murals and their history as a means of communication with roots in many cultures, specifically focused on the backgrounds of the participants. Conversations with the Center's staff and clients generated four principle themes: Healthy Eating, Education, Family, and Community Involvement. The group viewed the mural as a new language with which to communicate to and educate visitors and decided to represent the actual people who use the center in its design. The team was brought together through the shared goal of executing the mural, which became the voice of not just one culture, but of all cultures united in the quest for common understanding and shared communal experience.