“Education Is Our Right” focuses on an individual’s right to higher learning. A mural team of students from Park Slope Collegiate High School investigated individual and societal perspectives on access to higher education. The group’s ideas were sharpened and refined only after extensive research, which included interviews with school officials, college professors, and their own peers. The teen artists then created a unique visual language, inspired by a board game theme, to illustrate the steps that must be taken in order to get the most out of a system that is not always fair. Although inequalities are addressed, the mural also offers encouragement with messages like, “Study Hard,” “Seek Guidance,” and “Knowledge is something no one can take from you.” This visual encouragement to seek higher learning sends a powerful message to all students of Park Slope Collegiate High School.

In this project, a group of Groundswell youth partnered with Domestic Workers United (DWU) and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) to help organize domestic workers in their continued fight for justice, dignity, and respect. The youth artists were commissioned to create three banners which could be used by DWU and JFREJ at upcoming rallies, meetings, and open houses. These colorful banners celebrate the importance of domestic workers and call on all of us to take action in the ongoing campaign for justice for nannies, housekeepers, and elder care providers. The young people unveiled the banners as part of a larger education campaign regarding the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. At a street fair and press conference hosted in May 2012, hundreds of domestic workers and the children under their care joined our youth muralists in Park Slope to educate the community about this important legislation. During the event, DWU distributed resource guides designed to help local employers comply with the law.

In partnership with the Center for Court Innovation and its Red Hook Community Justice Center, a team of Groundswell youth created a vibrant new mural for installation in the Justice Center’s community room. The Justice Center’s innovative youth court trains teenagers to serve as jurors, judges, and attorneys, handling real-life cases involving their peers. During their research, Groundswell youth visited the Justice Center and spoke to the teenagers involved in its programs. They also researched area crime statistics and learned how a youth court approach can use positive peer pressure to ensure that young people who have committed minor offenses pay back the community and receive the help they need to avoid further involvement in the justice system. The mural is a warm welcome to all who visit the Center and celebrates the positive role that young people can play in the Red Hook Community.

"Here Goes Something” celebrates the rich and vibrant history of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The mural was created by 19 fourth and fifth grade students from PS 307. At the start of the mural design process, the group received a tour of the Navy Yard from its education staff and participated in in-depth discussions about its history. The mural tells the story of the Navy Yard from right to left. It begins with the indigenous Lenape people who inhabited the land before the Yard existed; it then travels through the industrial revolution and ends with a broadcast tower. Interspersed throughout the mural are hints to the different types of ships that have docked there over the years. Many of the youth live across the street from the Navy Yard but had never been inside this modern industrial park, and they were excited to paint a wall that they and their community would see everyday.
 

“Dream, Heal, Change” was created by a group of young women incarcerated at the Rose M. Singer Center on Rikers Island. This mural is inspired by the concept of metamorphosis – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Golden butterflies fly across the canvas, each with a word written into its wings. These words were generated by the young women during a brainstorming session about how to live a more healthy life in all forms. As the butterflies fly, they evoke the possibility for change, from locked up to free and from unhealthy to healthy. The mural’s brilliant palette serves to create a space that is both beautiful and uplifting. Creating “Dream, Heal, Change” was the first time many of the girls received credit for making something beautiful.

“Wings of Fitness” was created by incarcerated youth on Rikers Island. The mural illustrates personal responsibility, for both our health and well-being. The young people were inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Principle of Corporalita – the cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise. The mural triptych encourages aerobic conditioning, strength training, and flexibility exercises, through figurative poses of athletic activity, yoga, and exercise. Each of the three parts depicts an athlete juxtaposed with a flying animal to suggest grace and speed. In creating the mural, the young artists experienced the discipline and skill that is required for both fitness and mural painting.

"Hope, Health, and Home" was created by the Lang Mural Action class at The New School in partnership with BRC to celebrate the organization’s new building on 25th Street. The class researched, conceptualized, and created cohesive designs for three acrylic on canvas panels. The three panels are unified by a cohesive visual language and are based on BRC’s tagline of Hope, Health, and Home. In “Hope,” keys represent the possibility of owning a home or living in an apartment, one of the goals for many of the homeless residents who rely on the services that BRC provides. In “Health,” a group of people sit around a table sharing a meal, supporting one another and gazing out through an open window onto the New York cityscape. In “Home,” a tree grows from the center of an apartment, books at its roots representing the roots of knowledge. The tree symbolizes growth, stability and shelter. The entire BRC community, including friends, neighbors, clients, and staff, were invited to a special celebration to help paint each canvas and inaugurate the new facility.

Installed on a streetfacing wall of PS 10, "CautionMan" depicts an intersection with a crosswalk like those found adjacent to a school. Two children, painted  in the style of a street sign silhouette, are about to step into the street.  Simultaneously a truck makes a right turn into the same crosswalk. Both parties have go signals, a walk light, and a green light. The driver of the truck is angrily shouting into his cell phone, unaware that he needs to yield to the children in his path. Swooping to the rescue is the traffic safety superhero, CautionMan! With a head shaped like a yield sign, a body striped like caution tape, and a bright red hand he signals to the driver to slow down, pay attention, and cede the right of way to the children. A cyclist patiently waiting at the red light looks on as the all-too-common life and death drama plays out. The students who worked on the mural were proud to tell their schoolmates that they had helped paint the giant artwork that floated above their playground.
 

"Art Forms Change” was created by students at GED Plus High School. The mural celebrates the students’ experience as first generation Americans. During the research phase, the students studied the modern ‘griot’ or storyteller and shared their own hopes for achieving success during a series of peer-to-peer interviews. These conversations examined language, class, culture, and race in order to better understand the immigration experience and the defining and blending of culture. The mural is framed by two students on either side. One listens to music, a symbol that particularly resonated with the students. The other, a young woman, proudly wears a dashki-patterned shirt. The students used patterns from textiles and the maps of their countries of origins as a background to the image.

The "Space Adventure" mural was created as part of The Trust for Public Land’s renovation of PS 7’s playground. This mural’s theme is directly driven by PS 7’s motto: “Everyone is a Star.”  Through this partnership, the students created something special for their community. The students decided to depict a space theme along an 80-foot-long brick wall in their playground. Over 300 students participated during the painting process, gaining a great sense of ownership of their playground, community, and school. The mural colorfully depicts multiple planets, stars, a space ship, and two astronauts exploring the universe around them. The mural encourages the children’s imaginations to grow. You can reach for the stars and be anything that you want to be, even an astronaut! Can you spot the aliens popping out of the planets?