Groundswell Artist

Crystal Clarity

  Crystal Bruno is an illustrator, muralist, and teaching artist born, raised, and based in New York City. Her work serves and celebrates women of color and communities of color. Her vibrant organic urban styles merge the intersections of culture, gender, spirit, and inner city life. Bruno has worked with several pioneering non-profit organizations serving local communities through dynamic youth programs. For five years Bruno was the Visual Arts Instructor at EL PUENTE, an afterschool community center in the heart of Bushwick, Brooklyn. As artist-in-residence and creative consultant at Girls for Gender Equity (GGE), Bruno transformed programmatic spaces and GGE headquarters. For almost a decade she has been an enthusiastic student, practitioner, and mentor in the rich legacy of Mural Art. Beginning in 2008, she has facilitated an assortment of public art projects all over New York City with Groundswell. With youth development at the heart of her work, she continues her practice as a teaching artist while furthering her studies at Parsons The New School for Design.

Photo of a colorful and abstract mural.

Projects

  • Project | 2016

    Diaspora Arts

    Turnaround Arts students and staff celebrated the Afro-Caribbean diaspora in a mural. Painted on the schools auditorium stage, Diaspora Arts will be used as a backdrop for a variety of eve...
  • Project | 2016

    Crowns of the Playground

    Crowns of the Playground celebrates the youth by brightening up the space in the playground. The mural spotlights the youths visions and their undeniably inspired presence. The mural is ...
  • Project | 2016

    Love is the Main Ingredient / Amor es el Ingrediente Principal

    Love is the Main Ingredient / Amor es el Ingrediente Principal was painted by Comunilifes Life is Precious group, a suicide prevention group for young Latina women. The mural is housed in ...
  • Project | 2015

    My Sister’s Keeper

    My Sisters Keeper illustrates the unique challenges faced by women on their road to self-sufficiency and recovery from addiction. The artist team was comprised of women in recovery, and to...
  • Project | 2015

    Assembling the Future

    Designed by a talented team of New York City young women, Assembling the Future illustrates that the building of a strong healthy child is a community responsibility. They were inspired by th...
  • Project | 2014

    Guided Gateways

    Young female artists, working in partnership with Groundswell and Food Bazaar Supermarket, created Guided Gateways, a monumental mural designed to spark dialogue about reproductive health in ...
  • Project | 2014

    Care. No Matter What.

    Court-involved youth participating in Groundswells Segue program partnered with artists Crystal Bruno and Jules Joseph, Groundswell youth leaders, and Planned Parenthood of New York City to comp...
  • Project | 2013

    Bronx Rising

    Bronx Rising presents a community-inspired vision for Hunts Point as a neighborhood on the rise, much as the phoenix rises from the ashes to achieve new life. In the mural, a central figure o...
  • Project | 2012

    We Live Here

    We Live Here was designed to promote liveable streets in New York Citys largest walk-to-work community. In partnership with the New York City Department of Transportation and UPROSE, teen apprentice artists conducted studies on local traffic patterns and strategized ways to promote safety and respect amongst the many communities present in the neighborhood.
  • Project | 2008

    Water is the Life of NYC

    As part of our Summer Leadership Institute (SLI) 2008, Groundswell artists worked with a team of youth to create a monumental mural illustrating the New York water cycle.
  • Project | 2012

    Hunts Point Heroes

    In 2012, Groundswell teamed up with the New York City Department of Transportation, Majora Carter Group, and students from Hyde Leadership Charter School to create the “Hunts Point Heroes.” The five portraits created through this partnership celebrate local community change makers, including Arthur Aviles, Majora Carter, Megan Charlop, Sister Thomas, and Gilbert Valle.
  • Project | 2010

    Yes She Can!

    "Yes She Can!" is a mural that celebrates the relationship between the Bronx community and its environment. This mural proudly and boldly displays the words, “You do not have to move out of your neighborhood to live in a better one.”
  • Project | 2009

    Piece Out, Peace In

    Piece Out, Peace In is a collaborative gun violence prevention mural created in Crown Heights by Groundswell youth together with American Friends Service Committee and the Office of New York State Assemblymember Karim Camara.
  • Project | 2010

    Connectivity Continued

    A group of eight young women worked with professional artists Crystal Bruno and Tanya Albrigtsen-Frable to create a colorful mural at the front entrance of PS 506 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
  • Project | 2009

    Connectivity

    Connectivity is featured at the entrance of PS 506 and was created by two fifth grade classes. The mural focuses on the ideas of global community, technology, and journalism.
  • Project | 2011

    Weaving Change Beyond the Shadows

    Together with the Community League of the Heights (CLOTH) and American Friends Service Committee, Groundswell youth explored alternatives to violence and peace promotion to create a new mural in Washington Heights.
  • Project | 2011

    First Impression

    First Impression was created in partnership with The LGBT Center and Farrow & Ball. “First Impression” is a large installation mural that portrays an abstract collection of faces of all genders and ethnicities in a creative and colorful way.
  • Project | 2015

    Wall of Reflect

    Every person in a community should be recognized for his or her contributions, but there are often not enough opportunities to reflect on the people who make a neighborhood vibrant. Through the com...
  • Project | 2009

    Natural Inspiration

    Fifteen youth created "Natural Inspiration" in partnership with the Bowery Resident’s Committee (BRC) and its women’s residence in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.