Collaborative Murals

Creating collaborative murals with young people is an incredibly rewarding, challenging, and powerful experience. Each project is unique, but at its core is the amplification of youth voices and translating their ideas into large-scale public art. Through various art-making activities, we brainstorm ideas, sketch designs, and engage in meaningful conversations about what matters to us. I then weave their ideas into a cohesive mural design that we paint together. Watching young artists’ creativity unfold and seeing their excitement as their work transforms into public art is truly powerful. Murals have the power to transform a space, and it’s incredibly meaningful for young people to be a part of the process!

I have taken a break from facilitating collaborative murals since 2022, but I have new ideas about how to integrate more play, expression and creativity in the mural painting process. If you’d like to collaborate on a mural with your school or organization, please reach out!

Below are some samples of collaborative murals

A Celebration, 2022
Collaboration with 4th + 5th grade artists at PS197

Over the course of five months, I had the incredible opportunity to work with 4th and 5th grade artists in Midwood, an incredibly diverse and multicultural neighborhood in Brooklyn. Meeting weekly with a group of eager, young artists, we collaborated to design and create a mural that celebrated the vibrant cultures of the community. Most of the young artists were immigrants or first-generation Americans, and were excited to share their cultural backgrounds with me and one another. As a first generation kid myself, I found the process to be incredibly moving and healing; the kids’ pride in the culture was not something I grew up with myself in white suburbia, and it was amazing to witness and celebrate. Together, we incorporated elements like food, flags, and languages to represent the cultures within the school and the Midwood community. In our discussions, we also envisioned the world we wanted to see, and a larger theme emerged: Take care of the earth and each other. This mural is a celebration of the world — the people and the environment — as imagined by young people.

Big thank you to their wonderful art teacher, Anna, and the team at Groundswell for facilitating the production of this mural. More images of the final mural + process are below.

A peek into the process: some sketches created by the young artists.

"That's all of our ideas!" one of the young artists said when I showed them the digital sketch I designed in response to their artwork. Yay!

The mural was painted on parachute cloth, which was later installed outside of the school.

Shout out to all the people involved in making this mural happen!

Your Silence Will Not Protect You, 2021
Collaboration with six 5th grade artists at PS295

Over the course of four months, I had the true joy of collaborating with six brilliant 5th grade artists to design this mural. During the heart of the pandemic, we met twice a week virtually, where we collectively built a safer space to create work and discuss both everyday feelings and big, world issues. We explored social and environmental themes through the lens of art making, responding to our central questions: “What would we like to see in the future? What else is possible?” You can see some of the students’ brilliant artwork below, which took many forms, including stickers, protest posters and zines. Taking in their wonderful ideas and themes, we designed a colourful, diversity and justice-centered mural design. Due to the pandemic, we were unable to fabricate the entire mural together in person. However, I really wanted the students’ incredible hand in the mural, so they each created their own paintings that were incorporated into the final piece. It was such a joyful process; the students’ thoughtfulness, awareness, creativity, humour and compassion filled me with hope for the future. I am incredibly proud of them and their hard work and dedication over the course of months.

Unfortunately, shortly after the mural was installed, we discovered that it had been taken down by the school administration because it wasn’t “inclusive” enough. This experience was heartbreaking and infuriating, and indicative of the work yet to be done to build the world we’d like to see. More can be read here: New York Daily Post and New York Times . What was once an intimate process with six students has taken a life on its own. The Mural Justice Project was created in response, and the surrounding community’s response was phenomenal — they led community discussions, art events, and advocated for the recreation of the mural. In Summer 2022, we were able to rectify the wrong; I repainted the mural outside of the school, where it now permanently lives — much bigger and more public than its original spot in the cafeteria.

Below, you can view more of the process. This project was truly created with the help and support of so many. Thank you to Groundswell’s team - Sarah, Casey, Amelia, Ama, Christian and Robyne - for their support and advocacy throughout the process. Thank you for PS295’s amazing art teacher, Priscilla, for her enthusiasm and deep care, and thank you to PS295’s community for rallying together and showing the importance of people power. And, most of all, thank you to the brilliant young artists - Darby, Hollis, Jasmine, Kai, Luna, Seth - for bringing such light, hope and joy to my life and the world! Your art and your voices have had an impact beyond anything we could have imagined.

The original mural in the PS295 cafeteria

Early brainstorm featuring the students’ brilliant ideas for our futures

Sample project: Zine-making. We had a visit from Bushwick-based artist, educator and organizer, Duneska Michel, who spoke of her mutual aid collective based, Guanabana. Amongst their many local organizing initiatives, they run a free library that features BIPOC writers and lots of zines. This launched us into our own zine project, where young artists explored any theme they were curious about. Zines included ‘Wild Life,’ ‘Equity vs Equality’ and ‘We are the + in LGBTQ+’

Some of the students’ amazing drawings that inspired the mural’s design. Over the course of several months, they created hundreds of incredible pieces!

Sketch of the mural, incorporating the students’ designs.

Artists work on their small paintings on parachute cloth from their homes, to be incorporated into the final mural.

Images of students’ individual paintings, which were then integrated into the final mural.

On the final day of the class, we hosted a virtual ‘Rainbow Art Show’ for families of the artists and Groundswell staff. Each artist chose 5-7 of their favourite pieces and presented their work. A celebratory way to wrap up a four month, intimate process!

Recreating the mural at PS295 -- at a massive scale!

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Nexus 29th Street Community Fridge, 2021

Nexus 29th Street Community Fridge is a community, free fridge in Long Island City, Queens. Echoing the ethos of community-based, mutual aid projects, we wanted to bring in community voices and creativity into the fridge design. Cody Umans and I facilitated a virtual workshop with students at Growing Up Green School - the elementary school across the street from the fridge - to discuss food justice, mutual aid and ideas for the fridge design. Using the students’ wonderful ideas, I created a basic design for the fridge. During Din Din’s 29th Street Block Party, over 50 people from the community helped to collectively paint the fridge. When systems don't meet our needs, we take care of each other!

2021, Fridge Shelter by Cody Umans

Some slides from our Growing Up Green Presentation about food justice, mutual aid and community fridges.

Growing Up Green students’ wonderful ideas for the fridge design.

Fridge design based on students’ input, including smiling fruits + veggies and a unidog (unicorn + dog fusion!) juggling food. Colourful background area is a space for community members to incorporate their own paintings of food.

Astoria and Long Island City Community members contributing to the fridge painting.