NEW YORK—The Groundswell Community Mural Project partnered youth with artists and community organizations this summer to create artworks that impart messages about important issues like stopping gun violence or ways to get help from physical abuse.
Groups of aspiring youth artists conducted research, spoke with members of the community, designed their artworks, and then brought them to fruition.
’Love Should Always Be Safe’
“Love Should Always Be Safe” utilized different artistic techniques to educate youth about abusive relationships and how to get help when in one. Artists mostly worked with Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. The group of youth came up with messages to emblazon T-shirts and posters.
The messages imparted are powerful. One depicts a person bound by red ribbons that extend off a present behind it, with the words “It’s Not a Gift When It’s Used to Control Me” on the bottom of the poster. This refers to financial abuse happening in teen relationships when one partner controls money or uses it to manipulate the significant other.
“That was hard because financial abuse is many things,” said lead artist Nicole Schulman. “We were discussing what misconceptions people have. ... Financial abuse isn’t one partner taking money from the other, but about one partner using money and gifts to dominate the other.
“In an abusive relationship, the abuser will give gifts and money in excess in order to manipulate and control their partner and demand certain things back, such as sex.”
They also held a workshop that broached the topic of tank tops being called “wife-beaters,” suggesting that the term normalizes violence and has a negative impact.
A poster that reads “Hurtful Words Cling Like Shadows” depicts a young woman hugging herself while a sinister shadow looms over her. Two other shadows are filled with negative words. The moral is in the title—“Emotional and Verbal Abuse Happens in Teen Relationships”—and that such abuse can convince victims they are worthless.
Emeli, a 15-year-old student at Brooklyn High School of the Arts, said on the project’s blog that some of the things she learned “are the differences between healthy, unhealthy, and abusive relationships, the warning signs of an abusive relationship, and what to do if I am in an unhealthy situation or if I see someone else in an unhealthy situation.” She also learned how to be part of a team, use art for social change, and “use technology to create artwork.”
Groundswell’s Voices Her’d Visionaries, a female-leadership development group, collaborated with Day One, an organization dedicated to teen dating-violence education on the project.
The posters will soon be available from Day One’s website.
“We want to get them out to as many people as possible,” said Schulman. “We want to make teens aware that they should take unhealthy patterns in their relationships seriously and know that there is help for them if they are in an abusive relationship.”
Anti-Gun Mural
A crew of 15 youths, under the guidance of two artists, were involved in a challenging yet rewarding process. Given a general idea, they researched different aspects of it and engaged in discussions with the Washington Heights community, where the mural is now located.
“We wanted to show the community it was for them,” said 18-year-old Adan Palermo, a youth artist who worked on the mural.
They then formed a design, attempting to incorporate everyone’s input into it. Palermo said this part required patience. After the design was approved by Groundswell, they set to work, priming a wall at the Community League of the Height’s (CLOTH) headquarters, setting up scaffolding, and embarking on an artistic journey the neighborhood can appreciate for years to come.
A participant for his third year, Palermo said the project has given him valuable experience for a future career in the arts.
Restorative Justice
A third project, “Justice Mandala,” examined restorative justice through a circular mural used in Tibetan Buddhism meditation.
The mural is on a wall outside of the Brooklyn Detention Complex on State Street. It brings attention to restorative justice, a rehabilitative alternative that focuses on bringing peace to the wrongdoers in addition to the victims and the affected communities. The Justice Mandala website points out that restorative approaches to crime date back to Sumeria, approximately 2100 B.C.
