Click here to learn about our "Create A Mural Now" workshops, where youth work as a team to design and create a mural. The theme can fit your needs. Each project culminates with a party and gift bags for all participants.

Students Give Peace a Chance

It's estimated that there are 80,000 gang members in more than 1,000 gangs in Los Angeles. In spite of 25 years of a multi-billion dollar war on gangs, there are six times as many gangs and at least double the number of gang members in the region. While many children are "jumped in" to gangs as young as 6 or 7 years old, the majority tends to join while in middle school. This is a vulnerable time for kids, as they are lured down the path of delinquency, drugs and gang life.

Photo by USAID

Create Now primarily uses creative arts mentoring as intervention tactics to divert youth already in trouble, by exposing them to alternatives to gang life. However, we realize the importance of preventing children from joining gangs in the first place. Our Peace Murals (under the Take Heart program) engage susceptible youth in an intensive workshop where they help design and create a wall painting focused on peace, which is located at a central area of their school. Afterwards, participants are publicly celebrated for their great accomplishment.

MacLay Middle School in Pacoima was targeted by City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo as part of his School Safety partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District. Thanks to his generous support, we were able to present a unique mural technique that allowed the kids to paint their designs onto special canvas that was later glued onto the wall, leaving a permanent Peace Mural that will inspire students for many years to come.

Mariela, age 12

Create Now mentors Roger Dolin and Tim Cornelius helped the 15 students (ages 11 to 14) that participated in this project. Twice a week for 6 weeks, these kids worked after school as a team to create a magnificent mural dedicated to international peace. They were thrilled when they got to hang up the different pieces on the wall and see their hard work come together to create a beautiful message, including "Peace" in different languages.

As part of the mural program's objective to teach children about the arts, we arranged for these kids, along with 35 other MacLay students, to go on a field trip to the LA County Museum of Art. They were given a guided tour of their exhibition "Latin American Art" and each student received a membership card, so they can return any time for free with one adult. One student Cynthia said, "I like Diego Rivera. Now my whole family wants to go to the museum with me."

Angel, age 11, said, “I liked how the artists expressed their feelings through art. They used dark colors to show they were sad.”

City Attorney Delgadillo and the students unveiled the Peace Mural on March 18th. He said, "Providing safe and educationally enriching alternatives for our students during non-school hours is critical to keeping them away from the gangs who seek to terrorize our neighborhoods."

Some of the young artists with Ms. Auten, Roger Dolin and City Attorney Delgadillo

To honor the young artists at MacLay Middle School, Create Now gave them each a gift bag with a Certificate of Completion and art supplies, along with T-shirts from Tony Hawk. LAUSD's "Beyond the Bell" provided a program of music and dance for all of the attendees at this event, with MacLay Middle School students performing.

Art teacher Andrea Auten said, "The mural project enhanced its project members with a sense of ownership and pride towards their school, as well as their art." The mural is getting positive reviews from other Maclay students and staff, like "It's cool," and "It's tight." These kids respect the learning that Roger, Tim and I showed them. They grew in their experience. It's so immediate and so true, that we literally watched them grow in knowledge, like flowers blooming in the sun."

Gluing mural on the wall

Artist Roger Dolin spearheaded this project. He said, "Working with students at Maclay taught me so much about the pressures that middle schoolers face every day, especially in tough neighborhoods like Pacoima. I'm proud to be a part of something that transcends the every day struggles, and with a little training and a great teacher like Ms. Auten, kids can learn a few skills that will keep them sane when pressure from life gets too much. At least provide some enjoyment and a sense of mastery and completion at a young age."

Artist Tim Cornelius said, "I had a blast. I loved it when the kids came into the classroom. I loved it when they asked questions or asked for help. I loved watching them as their hard work paid off and I loved getting to know each of them. Coming in to this project, I was pretty sure that I could make some small contribution to the lives of the kids who participated. The real surprise for me was how much of a contribution each one of them made to my life."

One of the young artists, Edith said, "This mural was awesome, with ‘Peace’ in different languages. It expresses a lot of emotions and the colors say a lot."

Special thanks to our mentors Roger Dolin and Tim Cornelius, and to MacLay Principal Veronica Arreguin, Ms. Auten and the volunteers from San Fernando High School, as well as City Attorney Delgadillo, and from his office:  Ayelet Feiman, Sara Anjargolian and Max Follmer. 

We'd especially like to show our appreciation of the following sponsors of our Take Heart program: The Yahoo! Employee Foundation and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. This Peace Mural Workshop was also made possible in part by the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a division of the McCormick Tribune Foundation.

We also appreciate the generous donation of T-shirts by the Tony Hawk Foundation, paint from Warner Brothers Encore! as well as Paramount Studios, and graffiti protection by the Board of Public Works. We're very grateful to all of our sponsors.