Culture Making 2023
Thank you, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, for investing in Thrive Collective’s mission to eradicate artless education since 2016. In FY23, our students and artists completed:
- 156 school and community murals at seventy-four locations in all five boroughs;
- 28 original songs and 27 music videos;
- Our 450th mural since 2013;
- Our 25,000th student and 200th school served since 2011.
This past year nurtured our deepening relationship through four initiatives: the Cultural Development Fund (“CDF”), Art a Catalyst for Change (“Catalyst”), Cultural Immigrants Initiative (“Immigrants”), and Cultural After School Adventures (“CASA”). Enjoy the respective initiative portfolios in the tabs below, and a fuller description of program elements further down.
Cultural Development Fund
Our fourth-year grant from the Cultural Development Fund helped us complete 156 murals between July 2022 and June 2023. Below are some of the video highlights from our public art during that period. Enjoy our full murals portfolio here.
PIX 11: Celebrating 300 Murals
NY1: RHYME at PS/MS 105
CBS: 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop
Thrive X Brooklyn Nets Mural
Thrive at the Barclays Center
Behind the Scenes: RHYME
El Bohio Murals: 10th Street Makeover
Trailer Makeovers with the Tats Cru
Muraling in Dallas
Art a Catalyst for Change
Thrive Collective’s Art a Catalyst for Change grant allowed us to serve students at IS 117 and PS/MS 279 in the Bronx, and PS/MS 42Q and PS/MS 183Q in Queens, along with all six participating Queens schools via the borough-wide culminating event.
While the essential School Murals program remains consistent across various initiatives, different DCLA initiatives explore specific themes and focuses. Catalyst projects invite students to explore topics that inspire and equip students for gun-free living.
Special thanks to NYC Council Members Pierina Sanchez and Selvena N. Brooks-Powers for your Catalyst support again this year, along with the Queens Delegation for selecting us to produce the borough’s culminating event.
Park East HS: Rhythms of 105
After School (Manhattan 2024) More Details
Park East HS: Rhythms of 105
After School (Manhattan 2024) More Details
IS 117X: Embrace
After School (2024) More Details
PS/MS 279X: Welcome
After-School (Bronx 2024) More Details
PS/MS 279X: Seven Habits to Success
After-School (Bronx 2024) More Details
PS/MS 42Q: Imagine Unlimited Potential
After-School (Queens 2024) More Details
PS/MS 183Q: The Wonders of Summer
After-School (Queens 2024) More Details
HeART Beat 2024: Play
Event Mural (2024) More Details
Bronx Museum 2024: Peace, Love & Happiness
Event Mural (2024) More DetailsSTUDENTS DANCE, PAINT AND RAP AT HEART BEAT 2023
6th Annual Art a Catalyst for Change: Queens Culminating Event 2023
Enjoy the HeART Beat 2023 photo diary and more.Cultural Immigrants Initiative
Thrive Collective’s CII grant allowed us to serve students at PS 33 in the Bronx, PS 354 and Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens, and PS 139 and IS 201 in Brooklyn.
While the essential School Murals program remains consistent across various initiatives, different DCLA initiatives explore specific themes and focuses. CII projects celebrate the immigrant cultural diversity of particular neighborhoods and school communities while exploring various thematic topics.
Special thanks to NYC Council Members Pierina Ana Sanchez, Justin Brannan, Rita Joseph, Tiffany Cabán, and Speaker Adrienne E. Adams for your CII support this year.
PS 185K: Mural Restoration
Intensive (2024) More Details
PS 50Q: The Beginning of PS 50 Stars
In and After School (Queens 2024) More Details
Marie Curie HS: 20 Years & Counting, Understanding
In-School (Bronx 2024) More Details
Marie Curie HS: 20 Years & Counting, Bienvenidos
In-School (Bronx 2024) More Details
PS 171Q: Model for our Future
In-School (Queens 2024) More Details
PS 139 Alexine A. Fenty: “We bring this world together!”
School Mural (Brooklyn 2023) More DetailsCultural After School Adventures
Thrive Collective’s CASA grant allowed us to serve students at PS/MS 34 in Manhattan, and PS/MS 42 and Queens Preparatory Academy in Queens.
At Queens Prep, we held an after-school Mural program in which students produced a large exterior mural. At PS/MS 42, Queens Prep, and PS/MS 34, Thrive provided a hybrid music and media hip hop program called R.H.Y.M.E. (Rhymes Help Young Minds Excel). Students wrote, performed, and recorded three original songs and also designed album cover art, filmed two music videos, and distributed the videos on Youtube and the music on Bandcamp.
Special thanks to NYC Council Members Carlina Rivera and Selvena N. Brooks-Powers for your CASA support this year.
RHYME Music & Media at PS/MS 34 & PS/MS 42Q
``My Future is Bright`` (PS/MS 42Q)
``Kindness So Electric`` (PS/MS 34)
Music & Murals at Queens Prep
“Into Your Mind” (Queens Prep)
“Dreams Can Flow” (Queens Prep)
Our core Murals program remains consistent across the various initiatives, with different initiatives requiring specific thematic focuses. Core program elements include:
- Project based Murals workshops for up to an entire semester.
- Produced large-scale, public art murals for permanent installation at prominent locations within various school buildings and community walls.
- All classes and productions explored a common theme within a given school or community partner requiring participants to develop a shared vision and bring that vision to life collaboratively with others.
Murals classes include:
- Structured, age-appropriate, multidisciplinary arts education and social development programming.
- Age-appropriate instruction that developed mural and life skills including but not limited to design, image transfer, color mixing, painting, collaboration and leadership.
- Over the course of the semester, participants worked as teams to co-create a large-scale painting for permanent installation at the school.
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