Through Groundswell’s Segue alternate sentencing program, Groundswell and Settlement Housing Fund brought together a team of young students from the DREAMS YouthBuild program and the S.O.S. – Crown Heights Mediation Center to create a mural for the new SUNY Attain Computer Lab. In partnership with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, the intent of the project was to improve relations between young adults and local law enforcement.
 
“Searching for Crown Heights” features uniform computer monitors as the base of its composition. The phrase “Crown Heights, Brooklyn” appears in every browser search bar, the light source shines from the left side, and the right side is cast in shadow. The monitor and background colors are neutral greys, blues and purples.
 
Yet the computer screens tell another story. Inside each screen are colorful slices of the Crown Heights community. Unlike the predictable order of the computer monitors, these screen images are randomly ordered, warm palette, and celebratory. The vibrancy of the neighborhood gives life to the computers. As future students use the new computer lab, they will always be reminded of the diverse, beautiful, and historical legacy of their Crown Heights community.
 
Learn more about the project by watching this short documentary on the team's process.

“Love is the Main Ingredient / Amor es el Ingrediente Principal” was painted by Comunilife’s Life is Precious group, a suicide prevention group for young Latina women. The mural is housed in Comunilife’s kitchen. The concept of the mural developed from a thoughtful conversation about what food represents to them, such as love, happiness, a filling of emptiness, togetherness, and nourishment.
 
The design displays a connectedness between all of the figures through winding colors with music notes and food. Two women water the seed on an avocado boat that sprouts into a funky display of " La Vida es Preciosa” (Life is Precious).
 
An elder woman in the center of the mural shows the importance of loving and healthy familial exchange. She gathers the symbolic ingredients needed to nourish young women. The ingredients include items like unconditional love, courage, acceptance, and sisterhood. The key around the elder’s necklace is to open the door of the young woman's heart on the opposite wall. Latina culture is evident in food and instruments as well as the classic Pilon, which is used to bring all ingredients together. 

 
 
 
⇒ Download educational curriculum (pdf)

“CAMBA: Where You Can” was designed and fabricated at CAMBA’s Flagstone Family Center to promote a positive image vision of family, home, stability, growth, change, and community. The Flagstone Family Center is a family homeless shelter that assists families in becoming stabilized through securing active benefits, employment, searching for permanent housing, and securing a better quality of life when returning to the community.
 
The imagery of the mural is directly derived from the drawings and expressions of the youth participants. The mural serves as a colorful and uplifting symbol of CAMBA and incorporates the faces of CAMBA youth participants. The design uses three walls and activates the space in an architectural way, creating a sense of depth and attention to site. This design was in part inspired by the team’s field trip to the Brooklyn Museum, where they engaged in a day of art, team building, inspiration, and creativity.
 
The mural incorporates site specific references. There are Brownsville-inspired buildings in the background and a street sign reads AMBOY STREET, in reference to CAMBA’s address. “CAMBA: Where You Can” also depicts the faces of youth participants showing them at different stages in ages, as a symbols of present, past, and future. The wood frame house offers a vision of stability, home, and shelter, inspired by the phrase “a roof over our head.”

Groundswell worked with Bronx Hope students to create a mural promoting a positive message about personal growth and transformation. Hope Academy of the Bronx guides at-risk students from the fifth-grade level to the successful completion of high school. The mural utilizes both the front and back walls of a staircase in order to create a dynamic dimension to the design. The overall composition in the mural design depicts a subterranean world with plants that break through the surface into a brighter realm. 

Challenging symbols with negative connotations – such as handcuffs and prison bars – are minimized and seen as a shadow reminder of the challenges that the students have faced. They serve as a reminder of the value of working towards a successful future. 

The design overcomes the challenges by breaking through the ground into light. Lightbulbs were chosen by participants to symbolize hope. Lightbulbs also carry other affirmations that support the positive path and mindset moving forwards. The dandelion appears in flower, seed, and sprout forms to symbolize different stages of this transformation and growth. 

“Cypress Hills Fights for Food Justice” is a compelling piece that addresses the issues of food justice in the Cypress Hills community. The mural informs the students of the dangers of sugar in their diets. It also depicts the work the community gardens in the area are doing to solve these problems. The artist team created a series of canvases that narrate the problems and solutions they came up with in their investigations about this issue.
 
The canvases are split into two matching sets, each set with a depiction of unhealthy eating and a depiction of community gardens.
 
In one of the unhealthy eating panels, a grim reaper named Food Corp holds a scale with vegetables in one tray and a burger in the other. The burger represents American fast food. The burger outweighs vegetables to convey the influence fast food corporations have in the neighborhood.
 
In the matching panel, the design focuses on the solutions and actions youth can take to create a more just approach to food. Gardening tools to convey the idea of work. In the same panel the center of the composition is a group of people in the act of planting. The team created this piece to denote the importance of collective work.

Groundswell and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) designed the Traffic Safety Sign Residency Program to engage IS 218 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 Four Elements” was a collaboration with The Trust for Public Land and JHS 162. The mural covers a handball court in the school playground. To celebrate nature, the artist team focused on the four great natural elements: wind, earth and the forest, fire, and water. On the left there is a cloud blowing wind to the right. There is a flower pot that has been tipped over and various flowers spilled out of it. A rabbit and a deer play and a branch turns into a woman with flowers in her hair. A fire animal exits the volcano and a cloud rains to put the fire down. The water turns into waves while a whale swims out of it on the bottom right.

This mural was the second in a series to bring the learning that takes place inside East Brooklyn Community High School to the outside community.
 
The theme of this project asked students to envision their futures. They were also challenged to acknowledge the steps that took them to where they are now and the steps that will help them reach their goals in the future. The students brainstormed through sketching and writing exercises about how they see their bright and unrestricted future lives. The students created several concepts to represent their “journey – destination” of achieving their goals.
 
The final design depicts a yellow brick road that leads through an open door that parts waves and floral fields. The yellow brick road and the waves symbolize the journey, and the flowers symbolize the positive things along the way. The path leads to a mountain, atop of which is a crown, symbolizing success. Two doves can be seen on either side of the doorway symbolizing freedom and opportunity. The whole mural is in the shape of a keyhole, eluding to the fact that through their journeys, the students will ultimately unlock their futures and meet their goals.  

Groundswell collaborated with Horizons Juvenile Detention Center and Montefiore Medical Center to develop a series of murals depicting the importance of community health, proper eating habits, and physical activity. Horizons youth conducted research on healthy living while honing their artistic skills. They engaged in discussions about good nutrition, eating healthy, and staying active. 
 
Based on their research and experiences, they developed images to communicate the purpose and value of healthy living, and to educate others on how to do so. The pieces were split between the clinic at Horizons Juvenile Detention Center and Horizon Montefiore Medical Center.

Groundswell collaborated with Horizons Juvenile Detention Center and Montefiore Medical Center to develop a series of murals depicting the importance of community health, proper eating habits, and physical activity. Horizons youth conducted research on healthy living while honing their artistic skills. They engaged in discussions about good nutrition, eating healthy, and staying active. 
 
Based on their research and experiences, they developed images to communicate the purpose and value of healthy living, and to educate others on how to do so. The pieces were split between the clinic at Horizons Juvenile Detention Center and Horizon Montefiore Medical Center.