When the Earth Spoke

WH EN THE

EA RTH SPO KE

Public Art Youth Employment Program, Summer 2025 1

WHEN THE EARTH SPOKE Art Unveiling Tuesday, August 12th, 3:30 p.m.

360 Park Avenue South, Garden Level New York, NY 10010

Natalie Raskin, Teaching Artist Farah Mohammad, Teaching Artist Jonathan Hyman, Teaching Artist Assistant-in-Training

About the Paintings

Long-time supporter BXP commissioned Creative Art Works to provide youth-created artwork for one of their marketing centers. Working within the client’s guidelines, our team of Youth Apprentices designed an abstract, modular work on five canvases that can be subsequently reconfigured to enhance new spaces.

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From Executive Director Karen Jolicoeur

T

his summer, CAW hired 135 NYC teens and young adults for our Public Art Youth Employment program and handed them tremendous responsibility.

We once again entrusted these Youth Apprentices (YAs) to lend their skills, talents, grit, and humanity to major corporations and public institutions, knowing that they will deliver a stunning work of art. We’ve done this every summer for decades, and we are always inspired—though we can no longer say we are completely surprised—by what they create!

This year, our YAs painted four stunning murals or large-scale paintings. One series of panels offers hope and compassion to visitors in a waiting area at Kings County Family Court. An interior mural creates a welcoming and inclusive teen space in the Grant Houses Cornerstone Center in Morningside Heights. An expansive exterior mural at the Jacob H. Schiff Campus in West Harlem celebrates the local community. Finally, long-time supporter BXP has commissioned an abstract work for its marketing centers; the five canvases, which work together or separately, evoke the natural world and create a welcoming space.

We also assembled two multimedia teams this summer. A team of young graphic artists has designed a welcoming and informative printed guidebook for the five county courthouses within the NYC Family Court system. At the same time, a crew of young filmmakers produced a compelling and moving portrait of some of the many kinds of artists who call West Harlem home.

What our teams produced this summer is nothing short of remarkable. Of course, it's true that our staff and Teaching Artists set our YAs up for success with instruction, mentorship, encouragement, and support. Still, we never lose sight of what our young people bring to the table: their boundless capacity to contribute, to lead, and to enrich their communities through their fresh perspective and authentic expression.

Their extraordinary accomplishments serve as a powerful testament to the boundless potential residing within our youth. We hope you share our deep sense of optimism as we look forward to a future shaped by their talent and vision.

Yours sincerely,

Karen Jolicoeur Executive Director

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AIDAN

From a young age, Aidan Screwvala (any pronouns) has had a passion for sculpture, sewing, music, and fashion. Born and raised in Brooklyn, she spent her high school years experimenting with ceramics, photography, animation, videography, and fashion design and modeling.

Moving back home after college, they have been seeking opportunities to pursue his passions and use their environmental economics degree to better and give back to her community.

This is Aidan's first summer at Creative Art Works. Prior to CAW, Aidan has worked as a mentor and admissions ambassador at his college, as well as a teacher and grief counselor for young children. In their spare time, she is an avid baker, violist, and Dungeons and Dragons Game Master.

Alina Povelikin (she/ her) is an incoming freshman at Georgetown University who loves to engage with anything creative!

Born and raised in Manhattan, Alina is a passionate writer, public speaker, dancer, and artist. She specializes in pencil portraits and acrylic landscapes, but she is always open to experimenting with different styles and mediums. Her experience at CAW has been super fun. She has truly enjoyed collaborating with other YAs on group collages, paintings, and printmaking. She looks forward to continuing inviting creativity into her life in every possible situation, whether that be at school in group projects or while navigating hiking trails in national parks.

This is only her first year with CAW, but it has already made a positive impact on her summer and life in general.

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ALINA

ALISON

Alison Zhu (she/her) is a college student from Queens studying marketing and design. She loves being able to use creative forms to express herself, whether through art or music to tell stories words can’t. She joined CAW in hopes of making a tangible impact while spending time doing the things she loves, painting and collaborating.

AMILYA Amilya Deonandan (she/her) is an aspiring architectural engineer, and passionate artist from Queens. She is a rising senior at Brooklyn Technical High School. After spending half of her high school career not being sure what she wanted to be, Amilya found her passion for design after spending her junior year as an architecture major at Tech. After being interested in art and science since middle school and continuously improving her technical skills, Amilya is tirelessly working to grow as an artist and build her architecture portfolio. This is Amilya’s first year with Creative Art Works and she hopes it is not her last. By choosing to work with CAW this summer, Amilya has started to embrace her art skills that she tends to neglect during the school year and has learned about the beauty of abstraction as a girl who loves the detail of realist art. Being a part of the CAW team, Amilya has found and continues to embrace her passion for impacting people in her environment through design by playing a great role in developing key ideas and designs for this new public art piece.

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ANDRE Andre Caicedo (he/him) is a high school senior and musician from Queens. He wants to work in the financial field (accounting/business) and continue his passions as a musician by forming a band to express himself through music. He currently plays the saxophone and electric guitar, and is working on branching out to other instruments such as the drums.

He finds peace in skating at skateparks surrounded by nature and beautiful sunset skies.

CAYDEN

Cayden Colorado (he/him) is an 18-year-old transgender artist and recent graduate of Bushwick Leaders High School. Born and raised in Reno/Sparks, NV, he moved to Brooklyn in 2021 and has grown into a creative storyteller and community leader with a big heart and a sharp sense of humor. A returning Creative Art Works muralist, Cayden helped bring The Collective Dream to life at the Manhattan Family Courthouse. He’s all about bold expression through photography, public art, and tattooing — his dream career. Cayden is building a future where his art speaks louder than words and leaves people feeling seen, understood, and inspired.

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Cindy Gonzalez (she/her) is a 17-year-old college student and artist from Coney Island. Most of her values stem from her mother and her oldest sister, who has been like a second mom/best friend to her throughout her life. Her creativity, kindness, and drive for perfection are also deeply influenced by her mom, who has inserted the ideals of respect and compassion into her from a young age. Cindy strongly believes being on this mural team with Creative Art Works gives her a space to express herself through art and be a part of something bigger and meaningful.

CINDY Cleopatra Ramkissoon (she/her/hers) is a high school artist and amateur writer from Queens. Currently attending an all girls school, she spends the majority of her free time writing, drawing, and playing video games. The majority of her drawings are made digitally, however she did start off as a traditional artist. Her artistic side grew as her love for storytelling, world building, and animation took over her life. While she does enjoy other topics, such as science and psychology, art and writing were the first few hobbies that felt like they really fit. Her time in CAW, while not her first job, or first time working with SYEP, was her first real experience in being involved in an art centered workplace with like-minded people. She was able to meet people and form new bonds, as well as dabble in art forms that she hadn’t gotten a lot of time to experience.

CLEOPATRA 7

DJENE Djene Sylla is an up-andcoming senior in high school and will be graduating in 2026. She is looking forward to entering college as a biology or chemistry major. She finds enjoyment in reading as it serves to act as an escape from technology, as she feels bad when she spends too much time on the internet. She loves watching shows from around the world. In her time with Creative Art Works she has gained collaborative skills and met new people. She was able to discover her love for watercolor painting and will continue to explore it outside of CAW.

EMMA

Emma Durrsi (they/she) is an incoming college freshman at CUNY Hunter. She is majoring in biological sciences and potentially minoring in environmental science.

In her spare time, she is a woman of many interests, ranging from reading fantasy/romance novels to illustration portraits. Her hobbies make her shine! Emma decided she wanted to work at Creative Art Works because it gave the opportunity to express herself in a world of conformity and restriction and immerse herself in what truly brings her happiness; the ability to create. She will continue to pursue art as a hobby and seek a career in the sciences, balancing both worlds as her safe havens.

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GEILEIDYS

Geileidys Vedovato Baez (she/her) is a student at Brooklyn Collaborative Studies. She lives in The Bronx, and in the future she would like to be a painter and a professional volleyball player. She participates in a volleyball team, and in her free time she likes to make drawings, draws landscapes, and likes to challenge herself with drawings that she has never drawn before. She has really enjoyed this opportunity to engage in art activities while working with CAW.

GIANNA Gianna Rodriguez (she/her) is a senior at Duke University studying public policy. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, she’s passionate about health equity and health policy, particularly infectious disease policy. In her free time, she loves to play basketball, play video games, and practice trombone. Although this is her first time working with visual arts, she loves expressing herself creatively through music.

Thus, she’s excited for the opportunity to explore her visual art skills at CAW.

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Back row: Mack Gurmehak Mak, Kamila Lazur, Matthew Marchese, Rachel Tan, Alina Po Geileidys Vedovato Baez, María Ruiz, Zhi Lu, Aidan Screwvala Middle row: Cleopatra Ramkissoon, Amilya Deonandan, Emma Durrsi, Andre Caicedo,

Front row: Gianna Rodriguez, Teaching Artist Assistant-in-Training Jonathan Hyman, Ca Santiago Ali

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ovelikin, Alison Zhu, Javokhir Rafikov, Nicolas Zhicay, Mel Apostadero, Roger Nava,

Itzel Amastal, Liliana Raphael, Cindy Gonzalez, Pilar Rivera, Djene Sylla

ayden Colorado, Teaching Artist Farah Mohammad, Teaching Artist Natalie Raskin, Kai

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ITZEL Itzel Amastal (she/her) is a high school junior from Queens who has a passion for drawing. She expresses herself through her artwork, finding a sense of peace and calm in creating beautiful, colorful flowers. She puts everything she has into her work, using a variety of textures and blending techniques to bring her art to life. Itzel sees every project as an opportunity to learn and grow, and she uses her art as a way to reflect and find release. She loves listening to music while she works, and she is always willing to help others at CAW stay motivated and not give up.

JAVOKHIR Javokhir Rafikov (he/him) is a high school sophomore from Brooklyn who enjoys exploring new opportunities. He has explored wrestling, volleyball, playing the guitar, and chess. Javokhir is always open to learning and experimenting with different activities. He joined CAW to dive deeper into the world of expression and art. He was interested in the welcoming environment where all ideas are embraced. He values hands-on experiences, so CAW has been a great option for him, especially the amazing workshops with different styles of art.

Javokhir is looking forward to continuing his art journey and meeting new people who have a passion for the arts.

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Kai Santiago Ali (she/they/he) is a high school graduate and an upcoming college freshman who has a creative mind and soul. She is a pianist, dancer, singer, artist, writer, and a professional napper. #slaytheday. She was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York. Kai has participated in dance, skating, hiking, swimming, painting, and eating as hobbies. They plan on pursuing art in their future career whether that be in architecture, tattooing, interior design, animation, or something else. The goal with Creative Art Works is to collaborate with other creative minds to create work that will reach people out in the world whether to invite interpretation or to bring a good vibe. #vivir-reir-amar

KAI

KAMILA

Kamila Lazur (she/her) is a 16-yearold rising junior in high school, born and raised in Queens. With her aspirations for traveling athletics and snowboarding, she strives for new and upcoming challenges and seeks her passions to the max. Never home, never a home body, she loves spending time with friends and going out whenever she has the chance to. She also has a positive outlook on her life, not looking back but instead focusing on what’s upcoming and making sure she works so hard for what she deserves and will achieve, that it won’t make her question her choices.

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Liliana Raphael (they/them) is a seventeen year old artist from Queens. They are a passionate artist whose work reflects a deep connection to emotion, identity, and self-expression. Known for blending bold vision with delicate detail, she uses art as a language when words fall short.

Whether through painting, sketching, or mixed media, Liliana pours feeling into every piece, creating visuals that resonate with raw honesty and beauty. Her creative process is both a form of release and reflection, each stroke capturing moments of vulnerability, strength, and transformation. Inspired by personal experiences and the complexities of human connection, she aims to tell stories that others can see themselves in. Liliana isn’t just making art she’s building a world where feeling deeply is not only accepted, but celebrated.

MACK

Mack Gurmehak Kaur (she/her) is a high school senior from Queens with a deep passion for animals and nature. She pursues this interest through her school’s agricultural program, where she cares for farm animals and studies animal science.

Mack enjoys the diversity of artistic experiences at CAW and loves connecting with new people through the program.

She finds inspiration in the natural world and often incorporates those themes into her creative work. If she’s not in the barn or at an art table, she’s probably talking to a goat about her day.

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LILIANA

MARIA María Ruiz (she/her) is a student at Hunter College and lives in Flushing, Queens. Since she was very young she’s shown interest in art. She is aspiring to develop her art career and try different mediums like tattooing and digital art.

She has enjoyed working and painting together with the CAW team to create the concept for the BXP mural.

MATTHEW Matthew Marchese (he/him), is a rising freshman at Hunter College, planning to major in psychology. He has a passion for understanding the human mind and supporting others. Matthew feels that being given the opportunity to work on this mural with Creative Art Works has given him the ability to express himself and connect with his community in a meaningful way.

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MEL

Mel Apostadero (he/him) is a 16-year-old high school student and aspiring artist from Queens. He goes to Francis Lewis High School and is part of the JROTC program. During his free time he either draws, plays video games, watches TV, or does all at once. He’s interested in anything art-related whether it be sketching, sculpting, painting, or animating. As previously stated, he likes to draw a lot and he posts most of his finished drawings on social media. He draws mostly anime related things because he loves anime a lot. His Youth Apprentice position at Creative Art Works is his first job in his life.

PILAR Pilar Rivera (she/her) is an artist from Brooklyn, New York and a senior at The Rhode Island School of Design. She has always been interested in the arts and pursuing work that centers community. She is interested in combining her visual arts impulses with her studies in adaptive reuse, and creating works that spark conversation and bring people together.

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Nicolas Zhicay (he/him) is a future Queens College freshman and musician from Queens. Art has always been a big inspiration for him; he has loved drawing since he was a kid. He hopes to major in engineering or business, but is still very passionate about music and art. Music has also had a big influence in his life. He loves to play electric guitar and has big dreams of starting a band and traveling around the world. He hasn’t left New York, but someday hopes to go to Europe and Asia.

His motivation is to see a good future and have a good fortune.

NICOLAS ROGER Roger Nava (he/him) is a high school senior from Queens. Feeling unsure of his future, he joined the Creative Art Works team to explore a variety of new skills and get a feel for who he wants to be in the upcoming years. Roger has been willing to try out new things and is excited about what the program has offered. He is figuring out what his future can look like. Motivated by the idea of being his best self, Roger works for a future where he feels in control of his own life and is unburdened by any expectations placed upon himself.

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RACHEL Rachel Tan (she/her) is a college student from Queens who has always been pulled toward the creative arts and has a knack for collecting hobbies. She’s aiming for a career in UX design, eager to add her own spark to the ever evolving digital world.

This summer, she’s grateful to Creative Art Works for giving her the chance to reconnect with the fine arts, explore new mediums, and collaborate with fellow creatives.

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ZHI

Zhi Lu (she/her) is a thoughtful and aspiring high school senior from Queens, eager to embrace new opportunities. With a passion for scrapbooking and a love for music, she enjoys playing both the guitar and bass, expressing herself through her creativity. Zhi approaches life with an optimistic outlook and a heartfelt desire to make a positive difference in the world. Although she is unsure of what her future holds she is trying her best by embracing new experiences. She joined CAW in hopes of experiencing something new and connecting with a community of likeminded, creative individuals.

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Teaching Artist

Her exhibition highlights include International Print Center New York (IPCNY), The Jewish Museum, The Wallach Art Gallery, Field Projects (NYC), and Local Project Art Space (LIC, NY). She was recently the recipient of The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Robert Blackburn Printmaking Award (2021), Lucas T. Carlson Grant at Columbia University (2020), and IPCNY's Coursework Award (2020). Her recent solo exhibition was at Nyama Fine Art in NYC in 2022, and her work has been acquired for the permanent collection by the Baltimore Museum of Art.

FARAH

Farah Mohammad is a visual artist, teacher, and former social worker. She received her BA from Bennington College and her MFA from Columbia University. She has taught as adjunct faculty at Columbia's School of the Arts. In 2020, she partnered with the Alpha Arts Alliance to secure funding to teach a six-week arts workshop for NYC schools, called the Drawing Exchange.

NATALIE

JON

Teaching Artist Natalie Raskin (she/they) is a painter, bookmaker, writer, and educator raised and living in Brooklyn. She builds worlds out of loneliness and alter-egos. Across mediums, storytelling functions in mapping feelings and finding places of belonging for strange and awkward dreams. Natalie has been working in socio-emotional education settings since 2019 and develops individualized making and writing experiments with students to support them in developing autonomy with different forms of language. They are interested in instilling a sense of wonder and curiosity in students as they learn through multiple modalities and aim to establish the ideas of process and archiving as being valuable to the experience of being in school and in community with others. Natalie received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA in Studio Art at Queens College/Social Practice CUNY. She is currently making sculptural paintings and thinking about participatory reading, playing with the ways in which the art book can be community-facing, visually engaging, and a tool for learning.

Teaching Artist Assistant-in-Training Jonathan Hyman is an aspiring illustrator and designer. His main goal is to create illustrations and designs that will leave a lasting impact on others, providing inspiration through the means of art and its many forms. Jon is currently pursuing a BFA in electronic design and multimedia at CUNY City College. Striving for versatility, he not only focuses on design but other mediums that will further enhance his work. Before becoming a Teaching Artist Assistant-in-training, Jon worked with Creative Art Works on the murals “Monte De Flores” at Montefiore Square and “Golden Experience” and “Star Platinum” for the Savills North America headquarters in midtown Manhattan.

Jon hopes to demonstrate to others through his own illustrations that art is a skill that anyone can pick up.

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About the Public Art Youth Employment Program

Public Art Youth Employment Programs give teens and young adults full-time summer jobs and part-time jobs after school to create large-scale public art and multimedia projects. Youth Apprentices are guided by professional teaching artists from the initial concept development through client presentation, to the final edit and public unveiling or premiere. Along the way, they gain tangible employment and life skills such as leadership, teamwork, responsibility and the power of taking initiative. They are empowered by the enduring accomplishment in their work of art and its positive impact on the community.

About Creative Art Works

Creative Art Works (CAW) is a 39-year-old nonprofit that empowers young people through the visual and multimedia arts. Our programs equip children, teens, and young adults with essential tools and skills; connect them with community, academic success, and career opportunities; and inspire them to reach for new possibilities. Working in underserved neighborhoods of New York City, in public schools, recreation centers, foster care facilities, parks, juvenile justice settings, and in the remote environment, CAW provides dynamic creative youth development for those who otherwise lack access. Our programs build confidence, unlock a love of learning, and teach valuable technical and socialemotional skills while creating profound connections between our young constituents, their art and their communities. www.creativeartworks.org

SUPPORTERS Creative Art Works’ Public Art Youth Employment program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation

Creative Art Works’ programming is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

PARTNERS

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100 W. 33rd Street, Suite 1026 New York, NY 10001 646.424.0392 www.creativeartworks.org Creative Art Works is a 501(c)(3), EIN #13-3638436 Copyright © 2025 Creative Art Works. All rights reserved.

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