Groundswell & Fifth Avenue Committee joins forces to beautify Brooklyn and offer art opportunities to students

Thank you Brooklyn Eagle for  joining us at our 2024 Voices Her'd Community Paint Day! 

While capturing the paint day, they talked to our Groundswell staff, our teaching artists, Kristy McCarthy and Yolande Delius, and Michelle de la Uz from Fifth Avenue Committee.

"Fifth Avenue Committee has partnered with Groundswell for over 20 years on murals and various projects," said Michelle de la Uz, executive director of FAC. "They did the original mural at FAC Center for Community Development when we opened the building, and the mural needed to be updated and renewed because the building is undergoing some renovations. We wanted the mural to depict our more recent work." 

"My job is to guide the youth through research, design and fabrication of a community engaged mural. We talked about what symbols and metaphors we would use for the mural, and then we created the composition through a democratic, participatory process," said McCarthy. "The first project I did was the Voices Her'd project. This is my third year leading Voices Her'd, and I was really drawn to it because I love working with femme people and women-identifying youth and using our voices and providing a platform for young women to amplify their voices and talk about social issues and gender issues" 

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