Urban Promise - Building a city of promise...one child at a time.

Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

UrbanPromise intern creates mural with students

Sunday, November 9th, 2008


Hope Mead, a 19 year old artist from Freeville, New York, who spent this past school year as a Mission Year intern with Urban Promise graced our campus this summer with a beautiful mosaic tile wall mural.

During her first weekend in Camden last Fall she encountered the work of tile mural artist Isaiah Zagar and fell in love with his work. Tagging along with him for a few days, he put her to work and then commissioned her to “go out and make art in the world!”
Volunteering at Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, just down the street from Urban Promise, her first mural took shape with the art students there, a 6 foot by 25 foot depiction of student faces along a hallway. Raising money for all her own supplies, she then was inspired to work with our StreetLeaders this summer to add her colorful designs to the wall along our parking lot.

With help from fellow intern, Krista Reimer and our hardworking StreetLeaders, Hope has made her mark not only in the hearts of her students and coworkers, but in a very concrete way by beautifying our surroundings. Hope is currently a freshman studying art education at Messiah College in Grantham, PA.

Hope, and thank you for sharing your gifts with us!


UrbanPromise art students meet Faith Ringgold

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008


Wednesday, July 9, was a very special evening at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia as artist Faith Ringgold invited 10 select art students from The Camden Forward School to be her guests at a lecture she was giving in coordination with an exhibit of her work this summer.

This was the culmination of a series of lessons on African American artist taught this past school year by teachers Julie Kring-Schreifels and Trish Maunder in coordination with Faith Ringgold’s Anyone Can Fly Foundation. Each student was presented with an autographed book by Ms. Ringgold.

The students felt honored to have been a part of such a wonderful opportunity to meet this prominent artist and educator whose work is so vital to the history of American contemporary art.

For more information about the art program contact Julie at jkring@urbanpromiseusa.org