Colleen Kong-Savage

HeART Beat 2024: Peace & Love

The 7th Annual HeART Beat Festival returned to Roy Wilkins Park in Queens on May 29, 2024. Middle school students painted murals, designed video games, experienced AI, break danced, freestyle rapped, competed at drama games and so much more. Thrive Collective collaborated with Museum of the Moving Image, Black Spectrum Theatre, Speek Lyfe Movement, and…

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Mott Haven Academy Charter School: Haven Values

The theme Haven Values came from brainstorming with the students in the classroom over the kind of mark they wanted to leave behind for their school after they graduate. Many of them wanted to share their favorite parts of their community, the school’s core values and their own special interests on the wall. Leading artist…

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Lexington School for the Deaf: SOAR 2

This is Thrive’s first project with a Deaf community. High school students of one art class were asked, “Who are you as a community? What is important to you?” They answered: friendship, love, the school, communication, and inclusivity. The blue jay is Lexington’s mascot. Another member of the community suggested we include “SOAR” in  ASL…

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Lexington School for the Deaf: SOAR 1

This is Thrive’s first project with a Deaf community. High school students of one art class were asked, “Who are you as a community? What is important to you?” They answered: friendship, love, the school, communication, and inclusivity. The blue jay is Lexington’s mascot. Another member of the community suggested we include “SOAR” in  ASL…

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Coney Island Gospel Assembly: Faith, Hope, and Love

Three 18-wheelers that were brought to the Coney Island Gospel Assembly in 2012 for Hurricane Sandy relief never left the parking lot. So 9 years after the storm, Thrive did the only reasonable thing that an arts organization specializing in murals would do if it had 18-wheelers lying around. That’s right: we gave them a…

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South Bronx Community Charter High School: Design Your Future

SBCCHS asks its students to “Skill up. Design your future. Be EPIC.” We explored Afrofuturism, imagining a tomorrow built on the foundation of today. The mural wall is divided in two by a column. The left side represents the vibrant present-day urban landscape students call home—buildings along the Grand Concourse, Yankee stadium, a tiger to…

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Jordan Mott JHS: Five Houses

Thrive Collective created a series of five murals for the school corridors from the gym to the cafeteria, focusing on themes of kindness, empathy, and equity through classroom discussions and artwork.  We worked with one general 7th-grade class, and one mural-focused class of 6-8th grades. About 50 kids total, with a number of them coming…

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PS 279: D is 4 Diversity

“D is 4 Diversity” is a series of auditorium murals that explore cultural diversity and creating community within PS 279. This is the second year Councilmember Fernando Cabrera funded an Art as Catalyst for Change mural program for PS 279. Through this funding, students got to focus on creating a positive and energetic neighborhood filled…

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