PS 104: Brooklyn Gives

With support from the Immigrants Cultural Fund, Thrive Collective provided visual arts classes at PS/MS 104 in the Fort Hamilton section of Brooklyn that explored the school’s immigrant cultural diversity and collaboratively produced the Brooklyn Gives schoolyard mural, featuring legendary street artists and school alums Kaves and ADM. Our multidisciplinary arts education and social development programming began in February, and empowered students, parents, volunteers, and faculty at the school to design and execute a shared vision from April – June.

The students considered their own personal experiences as immigrants or as neighbors welcoming new immigrants into the community, and responded to questions such as:

“How does my family welcome guests into our home?”
“How have immigrants made Brooklyn home?”
“How can we give generously to our neighbors and community?”

The program included age-appropriate, in-school and out-of-school instruction that developed mural and life skills such as design, image transfer, color mixing, painting, communication, teamwork, conflict resolution, resilience, and leadership. Throughout the projects, school alumni and other students earned community service volunteers hours. We celebrated the student work at the “We Are Thrive Experiential Art Exhibit” sponsored and hosted by the United Federation of Teachers on June 17^th; and enjoyed a ribbon cutting celebration on June 8th.

Enjoy pictures of the process and the finished mural.