Events

7th Annual Thrive Collective Team Building Conference

Every year, Thrive Collective produces an annual Team Building Conference for current and prospective teaching artists and project managers. On January 30-31, we held our 7th annual two-day conference at Living Redemption Youth Opportunity Hub in Harlem in a space renovated and painted by our studio arts students since 2018. Everything at Thrive is built…

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Art History: Murals Revitalize East 10th Street, Honor CHARAS Founders

On Saturday, December 17, an intergenerational group of Lower East Side leaders came together to celebrate the ribbon cutting for a series of murals that paid homage to the CHARAS/El Bohio Community Center, which was located at 605 East 9th Street from 1979 until the beginning of this century. The 152,000-square foot complex, once home…

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Spraying an Abandoned Building on 10th Street

On an especially cold November day, artist William Power stood before a wall on 10th street with a can of spray paint. Wearing a gas mask and working in front of a camera capturing time-lapse footage, William carefully added shadows and wrinkles to the image of a Puerto Rican flag draped over the shoulders of…

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Thrive Collective x The Brooklyn Nets

Our #GivingTuesday 300 for 300 campaign launched with an assist from the Brooklyn Nets. #ThriveCollective interactive arts experience in the lobby of the Barclays Center prior to the @BrooklynNets – @OrlandoMagic game. Fans painted side-by-side with Thrive teaching artists and graffiti legend @dazeworldnyc. And the Nets pledged four more Thrive mural collars this year, becoming…

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2022 Art of Healing East Harlem

Check out the 2022 East Harlem Art of Healing festival sponsored by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in partnership with The Collective, Union Settlement and PS 007. Healing gun violence trauma through the creative arts. Stay tuned for the next Art of Healing festival coming soon to a neighborhood near you. Video by Eric Mason…

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Families Reunite at Bed-Stuy Mural Festival

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation (Ephesians 2:14) In October of 2022, Bedford-Stuyvesant held its first-ever mural festival. Entitled “BedStuy Walls,” it invited artists to spray a long stretch of wall on Lexington Avenue belonging to a one-story warehouse. Artist Michela…

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When Childhood and Adulthood Converge

On November 28, 2022, Thrive Collective hosted an interactive art exhibition at the Barclays Center during a game between the Brooklyn Nets and Orlando Magic. While Kevin Durant was busy delivering a 45-point performance, visitors had the opportunity to collaborate on a mural with Thrive’s very own teaching artists.  As quarter after quarter of the…

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El Bohio Mural Makeover in the Media

Video by Loisaida TV EV Grieve: “New murals depict LES history outside the long-empty CHARAS/El Bohio Community Center” New murals are in progress on the 10th Street side of the former P.S. 64/CHARAS/El Bohio Community Center between Avenue B and Avenue C. EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by yesterday for a work-in-progress look at the…

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A Brief History of Thrive Collective: Interactive Timeline

Check out our new interactive timeline! 2022 has been a record-breaking year. We completed our 300th mural, served our 25,000th student and 200th school, and our executive director Jeremy Del Rio marks his 40th year of ministry in New York’s Lower East Side and beyond. As we look back at the years of service in…

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Columbia University Neighbors Features Thrive Collective

Our Executive Director, Jeremy Del Rio, Esq., speaks with Brandee Sanders of Columbia University Neighbors to discuss arts education as a means for community empowerment. Thank you, Columbia Neighbors, for profiling Thrive as one of your back to school features this month. “Creating an ecosystem of empowerment isn’t only crucial for students to thrive in…

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