STUDENT CREATED MURALS ARE A GAME-CHANGER

The active design mural in the multipurpose room at PS/IS 137 in Brooklyn encourages students to create an ever evolving game. Jessie Novick Teaching Artist, 2019.

CAW teams up with Department of Health to promote active design

Physical activity is essential to the healthy development of all students, yet 80% of Americans don’t get enough exercise, according to the CDC. That’s why Creative Art Works teamed up with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to create murals to activate spaces at eight schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, as part of the Active Design in Schools initiative. Active Design seeks to promote physical and mental well-being through a series of architectural and urban design strategies that encourage stair climbing, walking, bicycling, transit use, active recreation, and healthy eating.

Third Grade students at PS 86 in Bushwick participated in researching and planning the design of a colorful new mural for their school lunch room.

Under the guidance of CAW Teaching Artist Kristy McCarthy, eight students explored ways that space can encourage physical activity – one exercise involved designing a fantasy playground. The final design of the mural includes a variety of colors, shapes, and images that can be incorporated into games made up by students.

The new mural in the PS 86 lunch room.

Students in the Adaptive Physical Education class at Franklin D. Roosevelt High School in Brooklyn needed an outdoor recreation area closer to school. They had been trekking to a local park for PE, but by the time they got there, there wasn’t much time to work up a sweat before they had to turn around and go back. The administration identified an area adjacent to the school that the students could use, but it sorely needed some color. Each student in the Adaptive PE class created their own design for the mural; then CAW Teaching Artist Valérie Hallier took ideas from each student and combined them into a single, cohesive piece. The mural was painted by a team of FDR teachers and staff, as well as veteran CAW Youth Apprentices hired expressly for the project.

“I could have made an entire mural out of each student’s [work], because they were really beautiful. ” — Teaching Artist Valérie Hallier

The active design mural for Adaptive PE at FDR High School, Brooklyn, Valérie Hallier Teaching Artist, 2019.

Over the past three years, Creative Art Works has partnered with the Active Design in Schools program on nine youth-inspired interactive murals in schools in Central Brooklyn and East Harlem. The program serves schools in communities with historical disinvestment that may have less access to high quality physical activity environments and with high rates of people earning lower incomes and people of color. The projects include painted ground markings and interactive wall murals that serve as the foundation for game playing. Asphalt Green, a nonprofit that provides innovative recreational instruction and programs to NYC children and adults is also partnering with the program to develop customized games that can be played with each interactive art installation. CAW and the DOHMH have completed or planned Active Design projects at the following schools: PS 297, PS 123, PS 137, PS 505, PS 86, PS 7M, PS 72, PS 133 and FDR High School.

The DOH's Active Design in Schools program partners with local arts organizations to support NYC Department of Education schools through the creation of interactive indoor and outdoor murals to increase equitable access to physical activity opportunities in schools. The Active Design in Schools program promotes health and wellness in schools through a series of architectural and design strategies that encourage stair climbing, walking, bicycling, active learning, active recreation, and mindful movement. Since 2015, the Active Design in Schools program has funded enhancements in over 90 K-12 public schools, reaching over 40,000 students.

PS 297 in Manhattan