Brooklyn Students Paint Prospect Park Benches With Artwork Against War, Bullying

Student leaders from local middle and high schools are using their creative talents to speak out about important community issues. The young trailblazers painted city park benches, unveiled Friday at Prospect Park, with inspiring messages on sensitive subjects such as racism, homophobia, gun violence and bullying.

“Our bench mural addresses the issue of bullying,” said Laiquan Griffin, a senior at Brooklyn School for Career Development, P.S. 753. “We choose this issue because we believe that everyone should be treated with kindness, compassion, love and especially respect. Our bench reflects positive messages that people can take with them throughout their day.”

The murals are a part of the Center for Educational Innovation Benchmark — an all-inclusive social action arts program that partnered with the city’s Parks Department and local artists and art teachers to work with kids on creative projects like the painted city benches.

The artists worked with kids to “explore social activism, examine social-action art and artists, survey the history and practice of public art, select and research a critical social issue and formulate a message for social change, and translate that message into a bench mural,” according to a release.

Mya Willia, one of Griffin’s classmates, said she learned the importance of raising awareness and “to love people even though life is hard.”

Another student, middle schooler Hm Imtiaz, explained the meaning behind his classmate’s Ukrainian crisis-inspired bench.

“We collectively agreed that the Ukraine crisis was difficult to understand. We came up with the slogan ‘War will end, we will mend’ because we are hopeful that we can find peace in this world,” said Imtiaz, of Students of Herbert S. Eisenberg at I.S. 303. “Our bench shows images that represent peace and the after effects of war.”

Jules Roberts, the teaching artist who helped Imtiaz and his classmates, explained why the children chose the images they painted.

“We made a mural in which the back of the bench shows in a comic book format the narrative progression of a child’s experience in war,” said Roberts. “You see a young girl playing with a teddy bear, having fun, and then you see how soldiers come in and the destruction and harm that war causes and this loss of childhood innocence.”

“The students have really powerful language skills and ability to come up with these beautiful slogans,” Roberts added.

According to another teaching artist, Laura McAdams, her school’s bench aimed to represent how racial discrimination affects mental health.

Song Yoo and her students created a painting that stated “Your Health Matters” with examples of what the students deemed pivotal to proper mental health.

Senior Program Coordinator Tara Kilbane cheered the artwork and the messages students created on their benches.

“You have a powerful, meaningful and beautiful message on your bench. You’re going to make a huge impact this summer,” said Kilbane. “You should be proud of yourselves.”

Participating teachers and artists affirmed the children’s work and stressed the importance of their creativity.

“In this current climate, young people need a public platform to express themselves on current social issues in a constructive, creative, hands-on and powerful way, so they can join the conversation and make a difference,” Alexandra Leff, creator and director of Arts Education at The Center for Educational Innovation, told Brooklyn Paper. “We are so proud of our students who have brought their passion and creativity and have taken on major issues in beautiful and powerful ways through their bench murals. Their messages for social change will inspire thousands of people this summer in our citywide parks exhibition.”

This year’s mural program served over 1,200 students in more than 32 schools across the city.

Brooklyn schools involved with the initiative were Joseph B. Cavallaro I.S. 281, Herbert S. Eisenberg I.S. 303, I.S. 381, Marine Park J.H.S. 278, New Heights M.S. 722, School for Career Development P.S. 753, and the Summit Academy Charter School 730.

[Photos by Jada Camille]

Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.

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