Thank you, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (“DCLA”), for investing in Thrive Collective’s mission to eradicate artless education since 2016. From July 2024 to June 2025, our New York City students and artists completed:
- 120 school and community murals in 34 NYC Council Districts totaling 30,000 square feet of public art at sixty-five locations in all five boroughs.
- 14 original songs, cover art, and music videos.
- 5 student films and PSAs.
- One fifteen-episode podcast.
- Dozens of art festivals, ribbon cuttings, school assemblies, community events, and more.
- More than 60 artists of various disciplines.
- Our 600th and 700th murals since the 2013-2014 school year.
- Our 35,000th student and 300th school served since 2011.
- 15 murals in Puerto Rico, the DC metroplex, Baltimore, and Tennessee.
This past year nurtured our deepening relationship with DCLA through four initiatives: the Cultural Development Fund (“CDF”), Art a Catalyst for Change (“Catalyst”), Cultural Immigrants Initiative (“Immigrants”), and Cultural After School Adventures (“CASA”). Enjoy the respective initiative portfolios in the tabs below.
Cultural Development Fund
Our sixth grant from the Cultural Development Fund helped us blow past two milestones in FY25: completing murals 600 and 700 since 2014. These were among 115 murals in New York City between July 2024 and June 2025, along with support for the Boone Avenue Walls and BedStuy Walls mural festivals in the Bronx and Brooklyn. Below are some of the video highlights from our public art during that period. Enjoy our full murals portfolio here.
Grit and Prosper: Basketball Court Murals with the DOE Arts Office
NYC Council x Bronx Museum
News 12: Brooklyn Artists Transform BQE Underpass
TODAY honors Hoda with mural saying: ‘Right on time’
HeART Beat Festival Queens
FOX 5 NY: Beautifying the BQE
School Beautification Makeover with Projectivity
Amazin' Family x NY Mets
WABC 7: Artists Transform Underpass
Art a Catalyst for Change
Thrive Collective’s Art a Catalyst for Change grant allowed us to serve students at IS 117 and PS/MS 279 in the Bronx, Park East High School in Manhattan, PS/MS 42Q and PS/MS 183Q in Queens, along with all participating schools from the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens via the borough-wide culminating events.
We facilitated five Catalyst murals this year at IS 117X, PS/MS 183Q, Park East High School, and two culminating events. PS 279X opted for a Media program, and PS/MS 42Q requested our RHYME music program. Catalyst projects invite students to explore topics and produce art that inspire and equip students for gun-free living. Enjoy their multimedia outputs below.
Special thanks to NYC Council Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala and Members Pierina Sanchez and Selvena N. Brooks-Powers for your Catalyst support again this year; the Queens Delegation for selecting us to produce the borough’s culminating event; and the Bronx Museum for inviting our collaboration for the Bronx and Manhattan culminating event.
Catalyst Murals
IS 117X: Promoting Change in our World
After School (2025) More Details
Park East HS: Bloom in Time
After School (Manhattan 2025) More Details
PS/MS 183Q: Good Things Happen Here
After-School (Queens 2025) More Details
Bronx Museum 2025: Spread Love
Event Mural (2025) More Details
HeART Beat 2025: Stay Connected
Event Mural (2025) More DetailsCatalyst Media at PS 279X
Catalyst Music at PS/MS 42Q
Culminating Events (Videos by BRIC)
STUDENTS DANCE, PAINT AND RAP AT HEART BEAT 2025
8th Annual Art a Catalyst for Change: Queens Culminating Event 2025
Enjoy the HeART Beat 2025 photo diary and more.Bronx Museum x Thrive Collective
7th Annual Art a Catalyst for Change: Manhattan & Bronx Culminating Event 2025
Enjoy the Bronx Museum 2025 photo diary and more.Cultural After School Adventures
Thrive Collective’s CASA grant allowed us to serve students at Frank McCourt High School, PS 91 and IS 117 in the Bronx, and Queens Preparatory Academy in Queens.
At Queens Prep, PS 91, and Frank McCourt, we held after-school Mural programs in which students produced public art on campus. At IS 117, Thrive provided a hybrid music and media hip hop program called R.H.Y.M.E. (Rhymes Help Young Minds Excel). Students wrote, performed, and recorded an original song and music video, and distributed the video on Youtube and the music on Bandcamp.
Special thanks to NYC Council Members Gale Brewer, Pierina Ana Sanchez, and Selvena N. Brooks-Powers for your CASA support this year.
CASA Murals
R.H.Y.M.E x MS 117 LIVE OUT MY BEST LIFE OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
RHYME Music & Media at IS 117X
Cultural Immigrants Initiative
Thrive Collective’s CII grant allowed us to serve students at Marie Curie High School in the Bronx, PS 45 and PS 171 in Queens, and PS/MS 104 in Brooklyn.
While the essential School Murals program remains consistent across various initiatives, different DCLA initiatives explore specific themes and focuses. CII projects celebrate the immigrant cultural diversity of particular neighborhoods and school communities while exploring various thematic topics.
Special thanks to NYC Council Members Pierina Ana Sanchez, Justin Brannan, Tiffany Cabán, and Speaker Adrienne E. Adams for your CII support this year.
Cultural Immigrants Murals
PS 104K: Mark of Excellence
Intensive (Brooklyn 2025) More Details
PS 123K: Can’t Stop / Won’t Stop
In-School (Brooklyn 2025) More Details
Marie Curie HS: One Community
In-School (Bronx 2025) More Details
PS 45Q: Unify at PS 45
In and After School (Queens 2025) More Details
FUNdamentals of PS 171: Diversity
In-School (Queens 2025) More Details
FUNdamentals of PS 171: Soar
In-School (Queens 2025) More Details
FUNdamentals of PS 171: Sharing
In-School (Queens 2025) More Details
FUNdamentals of PS 171: Family
In-School (Queens 2025) More Details
FUNdamentals of PS 171: Respect
In-School (Queens 2025) More DetailsOur core Murals program remains consistent across the various initiatives, with different initiatives requiring specific thematic focuses. Core program elements include:
- Project based Murals workshops for up to an entire semester.
- Produced large-scale, public art murals for permanent installation at prominent locations within various school buildings and community walls.
- All classes and productions explored a common theme within a given school or community partner requiring participants to develop a shared vision and bring that vision to life collaboratively with others.
Murals classes include:
- Structured, age-appropriate, multidisciplinary arts education and social development programming.
- Age-appropriate instruction that developed mural and life skills including but not limited to design, image transfer, color mixing, painting, collaboration and leadership.
- Over the course of the semester, participants worked as teams to co-create a large-scale painting for permanent installation at the school.
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