Meet Laura: Paint Love's New Executive Director!

A Letter from Laura Shaw: Paint Love’s New Executive Director

Hello Paint Love community!

I am so honored to be reaching out to you as the new Executive Director of Paint Love. When I first heard about Paint Love in 2015, I deeply connected with the mission and knew I wanted to be a part of this work. I officially joined the Paint Love team in 2016 as the Community Engagement Coordinator, and have served as the Operations Manager since 2017. I have learned so much working alongside Julie for the last three years, and am so humbled to be a part of carrying forward the incredible organization she dreamt and built. 

The arts have always been a huge part of my life- growing up, I danced with a ballet company in Memphis that performed and taught in under-served schools. I earned my master's degree from Boston University and have almost a decade of experience working with a wide range of nonprofit arts and educational programming, including the Fox Theatre's community outreach program, and The Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. I believe the arts are life-giving and worth-affirming, and can bring tremendous healing and fun to youth like those Paint Love serves, who are often facing some pretty tough circumstances. 

I am so excited for this next phase with Paint Love and incredibly thankful for the massive amount of support Julie and I have received during this transition. But we do need your help: through volunteering your time, donating money and supplies, showing up, and sharing our work, to support our crazy vision to bring more extraordinary art projects to even more extraordinary kids. I hope you'll join me as Paint Love continues to carry out our mission and make a big impact for the organizations, schools, communities, and youth we serve.

With gratitude,