CULTURE MAKING WITH NYC

2024 Report for NYC Department of Cultural Affairs

Culture Making 2024

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Thank you, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (“DCLA”), for investing in Thrive Collective’s mission to eradicate artless education since 2016. From July 2023 to September 2024, our New York City students and artists completed:

  • 152 school and community murals totaling 40,000 square feet of public art at seventy-six locations in all five boroughs.
  • Ten original songs and music videos.
  • One 15-episode podcast and two talent showcases.
  • Dozens of art festivals, ribbon cuttings, community events, and more.
  • Engaging more than 80 artists of various disciplines.
  • Our 600th mural since the 2013-2014 school year.
  • Our 30,000th student and 250th school served since 2011.

This past year nurtured our deepening relationship with DCLA 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.

CDF

Cultural Development Fund

Our fifth grant from the Cultural Development Fund helped us complete 152 murals in New York City between July 2023 and June 2024. Below are some of the video highlights from our public art during that period. Enjoy our full murals portfolio here.

So Amazin': NY Mets' Hispanic Heritage

ART OF HEALING Goes Back to School

50 YEARS OF HIP HOP CELEBRATION

``LIMITLESS`` DOCUMENTARY

CBS: Hip Hop 50 Anniversary

BMCC: HEALING THROUGH HIP HOP

Catalyst

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, Park East High School in Manhattan, 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 Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala and 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.

Catalyst Murals

STUDENTS DANCE, PAINT AND RAP AT HEART BEAT 2024

7th Annual Art a Catalyst for Change: Queens Culminating Event 2024

Enjoy the HeART Beat 2024 photo diary and more.

Bronx Museum x Thrive Collective

6th Annual Art a Catalyst for Change: Manhattan & Bronx Culminating Event 2024

Enjoy the Bronx Museum 2024 photo diary and more.

CASA

Cultural After School Adventures

Thrive Collective’s CASA grant allowed us to serve students at Frank McCourt High School and Lower Manhattan Arts Academy (LOMA) in Manhattan, PS 272 in Brooklyn, and PS/MS 42 and Queens Preparatory Academy in Queens.

At Queens Prep, LOMA, and Frank McCourt, we held after-school Mural programs in which students produced public art on campus. At PS/MS 42 and PS/MS 272, 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 two 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 Gale Brewer, Christopher Marte, Mercedes Narcisse, and Selvena N. Brooks-Powers for your CASA support this year.

CASA Murals

``Don't Worry`` Original Song & Music Video

RHYME Music & Media at PS 272K

``The Way Up Remix`` Original Song & Music Video

RHYME Music & Media at PS/MS 42Q

Immigrants

Cultural Immigrants Initiative

Thrive Collective’s CII grant allowed us to serve students at Marie Curie High School in the Bronx, PS 50 and PS 171 in Queens, and PS 185 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, Tiffany Cabán, and Speaker Adrienne E. Adams for your CII support this year.

Cultural Immigrants Murals

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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