The Other Side of Amarosa
Our journey began in a year-long COVID-era collaboration to reimagine an expansive path forward to a life beyond walls. More than a mural, our core team facilitated over 100 people to paint the picture of a place to belong, heal, and grow in our pilot project at Amarosa Academy.
A glimpse of Amarosa Academy in November 2021.
3 mo
CREATIVE CONCEPT WORKSHOPS
Lead artists facilitated creative learning workshops to create a safe and inspiring environment for the students of Amarosa to tell their COVID-era teen stories while developing trust in themselves and each other.
3 mo
CO-DESIGNING THE MURAL
The mural design is a result of the collective vision developed by artists and students. At each step of the design, artists and students practiced mirroring and developing each others ideas.
6 mo
collaboratively PAINTING
Over 100 pairs of hands and brushes massaged pigment into every surface of the courtyard, the heart of the Amarosa, completely transforming the walls into an open, expansive, and interactive space for students to envision a new path forward.
Reconstructing Reality
As Amarosa students wavered between virtual and in-person learning environments, lead artists gently worked alongside teen students as they reintegrated back into school.
In addition to navigating COVID-era changes, many students were also new parents, had recently changed schools, or experiencing challenging life moments.
Space to Grow
Artists used the mural to transform the physical space by mirroring their restructuring process of growth. By making the space interactive, we visually opened the walls to become a vibrant and dimensional environment with space to move, bend, and change.
The creative workshops were designed to give teens tools to work on creative problems that also address people problems. Through a series of mindfulness activities and reflective prompts, teens learned to listen through the noise to hear truths in themselves and each other. Our intention was to share our best tools to become better curious thinkers, deep feelers, and interconnected doers.
The Only Way Out is Through
Recalling Escheresque labyrinths and the interactive journey of Monument Valley, the mural visualizes alternative pathways to reconceptualize barriers, interruptions, and detours.
Students learned to see the school as a 3D grid that could be manipulated and changed, developing a unique visual language to open up the architectural elements of the school.
Windows, doors, and pipes were transformed into mirrors, portals, and chutes that lead to naturalist scenes reminiscent of Charlie Harper’s ecosystem of geometric shapes.
Like Samaritans in the Night
Thanks to the work of our incredible night crew, the students of Amarosa Academy began each morning by inspecting their walls for the inevitable changes that had taken place overnight.
They heard stories of how color was blasted across the entire courtyard using a gun that shot paint. They heard stories from our special night crew apprentices about how they learned how to become fierce with a brush. By the time we placed paintbrushes in the rest of their hands, the students of Amarosa Academy were ready to become part of the changes that were already happening.
Calling on Everyone
The mural design allowed people of all ages and skill levels to participate by painting flat color into empty outlines that resembled modern meditation coloring books and nostalgic paint-by-number kits. Artists provided gentle coaching, allowing students to develop creative confidence by sharing techniques they discovered with each other.
Within a month of painting, students who had never held a paintbrush proclaiming “but I’m not an artist!” had signed up to be paid apprentices to dive deeper into technical skill building. A month later, these same students were teaching community volunteers how to paint steady lines and smooth color fields.
6 months later, students learned the joy of becoming saturated in color, sweat, and sunlight.
All in the Family
There is power in reexamining and knowing something as familiar as red and blue in a new way, especially when tied to outside affiliations, sense of safety, and belonging.
Artists carefully designed a new way for students to relate to color within Amarosa. The color families reflect the imagery they belong to in the mural – Love, Water, Plants, Gold, and The Space Between. The colors echo the emotional symbolism by using names like Abraso (embrace), Tormenta (storm), Oscuridad (shadow) and Luz (sunlight).
“Art can be profoundly healing.
The mission of the school is restorative education – this project brings a beautiful light to what that can look like.”
Get to know the people INVOLVED in OUR PILOT PROject
