Covenant House Mural

by Paint Love intern Maya Glass

Even in the muggy heat, the youth and volunteers from Gas South did a wonderful job bringing colorful life to the Covenant House Mural on day one. Covenant House is a shelter serving teens and young adults that are facing homelessness. It was fun (and humbling) to see the youth crack animated jokes and watch their personalities bounce off one another. 

Day two was a success in completing this colorful mural for the Covenant House youth. The youth and Gas South volunteers did a wonderful job bringing this mural to life. I personally enjoyed everyone’s positive attitude and enthusiasm on this project!

“Paint Love has helped create an environment of dignity and creativity for our youth to express themselves. Through installing a beautiful mural  in our outdoor art space, Paint Love created an open and inviting space for our youth to hang out and create art. At Covenant House we try to create an atmosphere that feels more like a home than a shelter and this mural exemplifies this. We believe that healing comes in many forms and art can be an excellent way to address past trauma. Through offering art classes, Paint Love helped to continue and strengthen this form of therapy. Learning these skills not only improves youths' confidence levels but also increases their likelihood for success in professional settings.”

Hannah,
Covenant House 

How art can impact this demographic:

As our mural partner, the youth will be working together through every stage of the mural process: from conception to execution. Collaborative art projects give kids the opportunity to work toward something collectively, problem solving and creating as a team, and communicating their ideas effectively to be understood by others. The ability to work well on a diverse team with different opinions and ideas and create a strong and cohesive final product is important in life and a sought after skill in the workforce today. Building critical “soft skills” like this are especially important for low-income students who may not have as many opportunities as their more affluent peers to see these behaviors modeled. Art is the perfect avenue for practicing collaboration because projects are often open ended, and there are no right or wrong answers- the perfect environment for exploring collaborative processes.