Colorful Connections
A Mural Captures the Beautiful Pulse of Transportation
CAW Youth Apprentice James-Tyler Foster painting the face of the iconic clock above the information booth at Grand Central Terminal
The board room of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) is a place where decisions with enormous consequences are made. Representatives from city, state, regional, and federal agencies convene there to determine how billions of dollars in transportation funding will be invested across the greater Metropolitan region, directly impacting the lives of over 13 million New Yorkers. But the room needed a focal point that captured the chaotic, beautiful pulse of how millions of people travel every day.
NYMTC entrusted a team of 22 Creative Art Works Youth Apprentices (YAs) to paint a mural that tells a sweeping geographic story, traveling from Montauk Lighthouse on the far eastern tip of Long Island through all five boroughs and up the Lower Hudson River Valley. They wanted to see the myriad modes of transportation people in the region use to get to work, school, recreation, friends and family.
Under the guidance of CAW Teaching Artists Dani Coca and Emma Smoluchowski, and Teaching Artist Assistant-in-Training Cayden Colorado, we put a lot of responsibility into the hands of our YAs and trusted them to rise to the occasion. We think the results stand for themselves.
So did our clients.
Rossana Weitekamp, NYMTC Public information Officer
“We are about to see what happens when you give youth apprentices an opportunity to take their creativity and put it to work, to research ideas, express themselves and see their work become a major part of the community. We will see the creativity of 22 youth apprentices, each of whom put in 175 hours of work brainstorming this mural, conceptualizing it together with our NYMTC staff, and then proceeding to use 40 gallons of paint, 32 mixed colors, a countless number of paintbrushes, and most of their summer to create this wonderful piece.”
“The work that you have done is truly spectacular. You have been an inspiration for me and you’re going to inspire our NYMTC staff, our member agencies, and really everybody who is involved with transportation for years to come because of the work that you were able to accomplish together.”
Adam Levine, NYMTC Executive Director
The Finished Mural
“Colorful Connections: The Art of Transport” captures the vitality of the greater New York metro area and the transportation systems that connect millions of people from the Montauk Lighthouse to the Lower Hudson Valley and from Putnam County to Staten Island.
NYMTC Pitches In
As a team-building exercise, NYMTC staff, including Executive Director Adam Levine, took a break from their usual routine to take instruction from and paint with our youth apprentices.
“Destination”
CAW Youth Apprentice Jaheim Banner
“Destination”
By Jaheim Banner
A thing that could fly
Observing how we with no wings
Got to run before day becomes night.
A train, many trains,
That carried people to their destination.
A car, many that travel far
And had helped many through desperation.
Bikes that seem so isolated,
Yet people still mingled along the lane that they came from.
Without wings, patrons pass by streets and playgrounds
Reaching their destination with steel feathers.
The Process
The Unveiling
The unveiling of “Colorful Connections” was attended by representatives from NYMTC, including Rossana Weitekamp, NYMTC Public information Officer, and CAW Staff and Board Members, including CAW Board Treasurer Gail Holcomb and her husband Peter Holcomb, CAW Board Member Carol Rosenberg, CAW 2026 Benefit Honoree Carol Sun.
Read more about the young artists who created “Colorful Connections”
Read the commemorative brochure HERE.
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this mural in the short documentary
Watch the documentary HERE.
CAW Teaching Staff
Dani Coca
Teaching Artist
Emma Smoluchowski
Teaching Artist
Cayden Colorado
Teaching Artist Assistant-in-Training
Documentary Teaching Artist
Amrita Singh
Teaching Artist
CAW Staff
Karen Jolicoeur
Executive Director
Ian Newton
Director of Finance & Administration
Clair Vogel
Development Manager
Scott Lucas
Manager of Marketing & Communications
Donna Manganello
Program Manager
Kevin Claiborne
Program Manager
Riki Sabel
Program Manager of Teaching & Learning
Emilio Vides-Curnen
Operations Coordinator
Madeline De León
Program Coordinator
Paola Gonzalez
Development & Communications Coordinator
EJ Meehan
Finance & Administration Coordinator
Our partners for this program include:
Our Thanks
Creative Art Works’ Public Art Youth Employment program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The program also receives support from the AEO Better World Foundation, the Find Your Light Foundation, the LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation, the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Pinkerton Foundation, and the William Talbot Hillman Foundation. Creative Art Works’ programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. The Sherman Creek photo essay program was made possible by a generous grant from Charities Aid Foundation Canada.
Additional funding was provided by: The NYC Department of Youth and Community Development and by numerous corporate and individual sponsors and donors.
