“The Next Step” is a celebration of Frederick Douglass Academy by students about to graduate the middle school and enter high school.
 
On one side of the hallway, the team tackled the importance literacy and communication. One student is speaking to another in English while the other hears in Spanish. The open book is the central image that directs the viewer to look above into the city which is a gateway to the world of future possibilities. The faces are a combination of all the participants’ portraits so each one can find a piece of themselves.
 
On the other side of the hallway, the images reflect the student’s inner selves. The youth artists create images that represent themselves as a product of their school and neighborhood. The mural itself is meant to be fragmented, similar to broken glass to simulate bringing beauty to the confusion of their lives. They are teenagers preparing to go to High school.
 
The mural design incorporates school colors within a variety of others. By adding additional colors to the school’s navy blue, white, and yellow, it makes the piece more dynamic and adds a sense of diversity within the school. The mascot was incorporated as well as the Frederick Douglass quote, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men,” included in both English and Spanish to honor the school’s namesake.
 
The final piece of the mural is a welcome sign with the name of the school written next to the main office. 

“Trans Latinas En Revolucion” is a series of three separate banners about transgender Latina women’s empowerment created by Make the Road NY participants which will be used in protest marches and LGBTQ pride events. One banner is larger and sets the tone for the other two, which in many respects could be considered flanking banners and can be installed as side pieces of a tryptic.
 
The design uses directed references slogans and declaration of the transgender activist movement. They reflect the imagery and symbols of the movement selected by Make the Road participants such as the transgender pride flag, transgender symbols, butterflies, and flowers. The mural incorporates the actual faces and voices of members of the community for which they are made. The design addresses the issues of immigration, migration, protest, transgender rights, and transgender visibility. The banners are specific to the communities in landscape, language, and palette. This promotes dialogue in bringing an issue and marginalized community to the forefront while promoting a healthy, vibrant, and strong representation.

Leake and Watts and Groundswell partnered to inspire youth people in incarceration to gain awareness of their future options. The youth artists created a design centered on the visual metaphor of a maze representing paths that leads to incarceration and other paths that are more prosperous and sustainable. 

The youth reflected on the pace of transition they experience as participants in Leake & Watts programming from being admitted and being re-introduced into society. After introspective conversations, the group decided that the transition reflected overcoming difficulties throughout their lives that will lead to their future successes. 

The design is set up as a stage, where life is a performance. To represent the paths that the youth believe are less conducive to sustainable living, the design incorporates the use of common warnings such as stop/yield signs, jail cell, and handcuffs. A maze containing worthwhile goals such as having a family, home, and car are presented as a contrast. Portraits of students are included in an enlarging arc shows the path of maturity and growth. 

At PS 54 in the Bronx, a team of students created a mural to teach that they can live peacefully if everyone respects and values one another regardless of their differences. With this in mind, the PS 54 School Leadership Team, the Parent Association, the staff, and the Student Council embarked in a one-year long journey where the community, with support from Council Member Ritchie Torres, Community Board 7, and The Coalition Against Violence joined forces with Groundswell and created a mural against violence. “Sin Armas Sin Odio” only shows images of love, compassion, respect and value. Most of these images were created by the children of PS 54 and were beautifully transformed by Lead Artist Jeff Henriquez and Groundswell’s student apprentices.  The images show that the young artists hope for the absence of violence. This mural will be a constant reminder that the community can live in peace.

Groundswell, New York City FC, and PS 24 collaborated to create a beautiful new mural organized and designed by female students to enhance the school’s new soccer field.  To create this mural, 30 elementary school students reflected on their personal experiences as young girls during an intensive public artmaking program, presented with the support of the New York City Council through its STARS Citywide Girls Initiative.
 
The new mural conveys the notions of healthy living, physical fitness, and teambuilding, all of which are necessary to build New York City children's futures. The mural depicts young girls playing soccer with a skyline full of NYC landmarks, including a soccer ball-patterned subway train. A banner reading "One team, One Dream, One Mission" reminds everyone who will see it of the power of team unity.

“The Spirit of SoHo” is a 4,000 square foot mural that scales Aby Rosen’s latest hotel’s south-facing wall, designed to celebrate the history and culture of SoHo. SoHo is a diverse metropolitan district in Manhattan characterized by its iconic history, fashion, music, and food. Young artists collaborated with renowned contemporary artist Jeff Koons in planning the mural. The students who designed the mural were enrolled in the Artist Apprentices Program at Groundswell; the program included research about the neighborhood, visual literacy exercises, and design workshops to generate ideas and images for the mural. Each artist developed their own design concepts for the mural and then came together to develop a final design that incorporated all of their ideas.
 
The overall shape of the mural is a female figure who embodies the spirit of SoHo through the imagery within her silhouette. The woman’s body language conveys the confidence and pride that people experience as members of the SoHo community. The floral pattern on the woman’s arm is meant to illustrate the growth and beauty that characterizes Soho’s past, present, and future. Several symbols are used to represent the history of SoHo, such as the ship that contains “1600” and Black Power fists, exemplary of the fact that SoHo was the first free black community in the United States. A crown is depicted to pay homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat, a member of the artistic movement in the 1980’s that contributed to SoHo’s fame.
 
The SoHo’s vibrant nightlife is denoted by a trumpet player. A fork wrapped in spaghetti references to Little Italy and the various restaurants and music venues within the neighborhood. Additionally, the factory worker grinding gears represents the garment industry that was highly relevant in the neighborhood during the turn of the 20th century.
 
SoHo is still considered one of the finest fashion and nightlife districts in New York City and the mural is meant to be a piece that inspires visitors to explore the area and shop. “The Spirit of SoHo” acts as a gateway into the neighborhood and embodies the spirit of the community.
 
Learn more about the mural by watching this Fox Five News - Good Day Art Club: Giant Mural segment and listening to this FM Magazine/Fresh 102.7 recording.

“The Gateway to Tomorrow” is a celebration of the hidden treasures within the Brownsville community, namely its school and students. The participants of the artist team are students of Brownsville Academy and were able to incorporate their ambitions into the mural. As part of the research that occurred before starting the mural, participants practiced painting portraits as well as shared their hopes for their future as a brainstorming process. The piece acts as inspiration for students to finish school and pursue their dreams.
 
Each figure within the mural is one of the young artists, highlighting Brownsville Academy’s pride for its students. The figures all have symbolic images either within their hats, hair, or headdress, signifying the importance of education and a higher intellect. One student wears an Egyptian headdress; the patterns inside of which embody the different obstacles the youth must overcome through learning and education. Another student wears a graduation cap with a hot air balloon in the shape of an owl, as a representation of a way to improve quality of life through the power of wisdom. Similarly, a figure has activities and future jobs wrapped within her hair as well as an open door that reads ‘exit,’ symbolizing that one achieves true freedom through education. Finally, another student wears a hat with Marcus Garvey on it and a thriving community at his back; this represents the struggles that education and knowledge can overcome for an individual as well as a community as a whole.
 
“The Gateway to Tomorrow” acts as an inspiration for students to pursue knowledge and is symbolic of the fact that a complete education will lead to a better adult life with more freedom to pursue one’s dreams. 

“The Fruit of Our Labor,” a new mural located in Mount Eden, was painted by the community’s youth in order to improve the public’s perspective on agricultural and food workers. The young artists explored the various exploitations food workers are subject to by observing grocers and food markets. It was evident that the prejudice against those in the food industry is a negative byproduct of the country’s history and culture, not a result of their own actions. The food industry’s origin is characterized by slavery and injustice, considered the catalyst for the bias against food workers.
 
The mural utilizes various symbols in order to narrate the influence of the “food chain” on various communities. The food chain is a phrase used to denote the agricultural process from cultivation to consumption. The mural is separated into two distinct, yet aesthetically parallel, pieces; the food chain displayed in the piece is broken across the two as a criticism of the slavery that existed throughout the founding of the United States’ agricultural industry. The butterflies dispersed throughout the mural symbolize the United States’ employment of immigrant workers for cultivation, as well as represent the nature of the community of the South Bronx. The mural was installed as method to promote a public dialogue considering the negative aspects of the food chain and its effects on members of the community in order to inspire empathy and activism.

“The 3 Pillars” represents the spirit of the Housing Works organizations core pillars of advocacy, services, and entrepreneurial businesses. The mural is a triptych, with each canvas embodying a pillar. Inspired by Housing Works longtime commitment to NYC Kiki Balls as an organizer and sponsor, the pillars are portrayed by figures posed in voguing dance moves of kiki ballroom dancers. They possess a heroic quality, representing those affected by HIV/AIDS within the Housing Works communities.
 
For the figure representing advocacy, the dancer's energy is upward and kicking outward. An open giving hand extends out, while the other hand holds a megaphone to amplify the Housing Works message and history of activism through education and civil disobedience. To represent services, a dancer has open arms exposing her heart. The staff of caduceus manifests behind this figure, to represent the medical and mental health programs that Housing Works provides. The torn stockings evoke a reptile or snake shedding its skin and becoming something new. For the final figure, symbolizing entrepreneurial businesses, the posture is powerful, supportive, and balanced. The gears represent all the symbolic machinery and many moving parts of the various businesses in the Housing Works umbrella. This motif threads behind the other panels as well, because the moving gears of the business help to fund and support the other aspects of advocacy and medical services. We also see the supporting hands of community illustrated on the gears as well as many of the keywords of the organization.
 
Housing Works' logo and colors are both prominently featured throughout. The logo appears in each panel. 

A team of students from the Boys and Girls High School Campus created a mural that reflects the legacy of the campus schools and its many alumnus who excelled in numerous fields, including academia, sports, music, entertainment, politics, activism, science, and literature. The artists wanted a bright and colorful mural that would help unite the schools and create a sense of pride in its history and heritage. In the mural, a torch, symbolizing the school, is being carried by young people of the current student body. The flame of the torch symbolizes the school’s legacy, with rays of light beaming from the flame, revealing a selection of notables from the school’s alumnus and past faculty, including Shirley Chisholm, Frank Mickens, Connie Hawkins, Lena Horne, Louis Reyes Rivera, Norman Mailer, Max Roach, Tommy Davis, Richard Rose, and Adelaide Sanford.