Communication is Everything

*A mural for the Grant Houses Cornerstone Center game room was unveiled to the community on August 13th with a presentation of the process by CAW Youth Apprentices followed by a pizza party.*

The room is filled with the sounds of laughter and music and the smell of fresh pizza. Scores of young people and their proud parents are playing pool, shooting a Nerf basketball, or just hanging out. It seems like everybody is taking selfies in front of a vibrant mural that features images specific to Harlem, such as a trumpet player, the A train, and a boom box, as well images taken from sports and video games, many of which are rendered in classic eight-bit style. We are in a teen game room at the Grant Houses in West Harlem, where Creative Art Works Youth Apprentices have created a wrap-around mural with art by youth for youth.

*At the client pitch, MMCC Program Director* ***Casandra Quick*** *& Assistant Program Director* ***Isaiah Jackson Bentley*** *enthusiastically approved our team’s expanded design*

These walls have something to say.
For more than 30 years, Creative Art Works has partnered with the NYC Department of Youth & Community Development’s Summer Youth Employment Program, but this is the first year that DYCD has been a direct client of CAW.

Recently, DYCD surveyed several of their NYCHA Cornerstone Centers looking for opportunities for upgrades as part of a beautification initiative. Cornerstone’s mission is to provide engaging youth services in partnership with NYCHA and our other nonprofit providers across the City. Residents and members of the Grant Houses Youth Council agreed that they wanted a youth-created mural to enliven their game room.

Residents made it clear that they wanted the space to be welcoming and comfortable and to serve as a safe place for youth between the ages 13 to 19 years old. This meant, among other things, that the childish primary colors had to go. Residents requested themes such as street vibes, Harlem iconography, sports, billiards, and video games. Overall, they wanted a mural that would speak to young people in their own language.

CAW YA Maya Wellington said, “We took the client's ideas and included it into our brainstorming process, while also adding our own ideas, because the client allowed us to have creative freedom.”

*CAW YAs Maya Wellington & Tanieya Pereira during a brainstorming session*

“We had to try and create something that was going to be comforting to the community, but not all of us are actually from around here, so we had to develop a deeper understanding by walking around the community and just having conversations with people.”

— Youth Apprentice Tanieya Pereira

The initial plan was to focus on the largest wall in the game room, but the YAs quickly determined that was not enough space to include all the great ideas they had collected. So, the design expanded to incorporate the two adjacent walls plus two support pillars.

YA Kujeji Sumareh explained, “Each person on the team contributed their unique ideas and opinions and related them to our client's wants and needs. We wanted the largest wall to be the main attraction while still making all the other walls special and cohesive. Trains, music, buildings, and people were all used to tie everything together and keep the design cohesive.”

“We wanted the mural to create a brand new vibe. We wanted to make whoever walked into the room to feel safe, comfortable, happy, and uplifted. We wanted them to feel like they belonged and they mattered.”

— Youth Apprentice Geraldine Tewiah

With only two weeks between design approval and the unveiling, YAs threw themselves into the intense painting process. The team stayed positive by playing music, telling jokes, and giving their paint colors bespoke names, such as “Hawaiian blue” and “funky fuchsia.”

*CAW YAs Arnaldo Rodriguez and Julia Rodriguez working together on the mural design*

“A huge part of this process involved communicating with each other. This meant helping each other out while painting, asking one another if our measurements looked right, or if our paint seemed sufficient. This habit of regular communication not only helped us improve our painting, it also helped us bond with each other.”

— Youth Apprentice Julia Rodriguez

“This team cares so much about the project. They are consistently speaking up and saying things like, ‘We need to make sure these colors match,” or, ‘We need to figure out a solution for this blank area of the mural.’ They’ve taken so much initiative that, honestly, I feel like I’m working alongside them as part of their team.”

— Teaching Artist Becky Schuman

*CAW Teaching Artist and YA Taneiya Pereira consult the design while painting the mural*

The mural was unveiled to the community on August 13th. All YAs participated in the pre-reveal presentation, which was followed by, appropriately enough, a pizza party in the game room.