PROJECT COLOR CORPS — love good color

for the BOYS & GIRLS CLUB of LONG BEACH

For Project Color Corps painting a building is much bigger than the physical act of adding a coat or two. They use color as an equalizer, bringing Optical Optimism, and respect into neighborhoods. Their work is a reflection of the community, its beauty, and its power.

We LOVE the many projects that Project Color Corps and its chapters across the U.S. have created and today we are highlighting their collaboration with furniture maker Martin Brattrud, Kelly-Moore Paint, and The Boys & Girls Club of Long Beach, California whose mission is “to enable all young people, especially those who need us most to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens". In Long Beach, 22.8% of residents live at or below the U.S. Federal Poverty Guidelines, which is surprising given its location in one of California’s wealthiest counties. For children, the outcomes are heartbreaking with 32.8% of children under 5 and 33% of youth 5-17 living in poverty. A community resource like The Boys & Girls Club supports children and their families as they navigate these systemic challenges.

Image courtesy of Boys & Girls Club of Lon Beach 2019 Impact Report

Project Color Corps’ design process is executed collaboratively with the community with great humility. Everything begins and ends with listening to the desires, hopes, and dreams for a new and colorful community. The kids of the Boys & Girls Club Long Beach were asked about how they want to feel when attending the Boys & Girls Club as well as asking about some of their favorite colors and how those color make them feel:

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“Yellow makes me feel like I should get up and start dancing.”

“Red makes me want to work hard.”

“Blue makes me feel like I am in the sky.”

“Turquoise makes me feel proud, joyful, pretty awesome, and cool.”

Their favorite colors were turquoise, followed by purple, orange, blue, red, and pink.

Word clouds were created based on how they want to feel while visiting the club and what they chose as their favorite color.

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The words were then distilled into two options that they voted on: Sparkly Confident and Comfortable Free. The kids voted for Comfortable Free.

Volunteer Designers, Katie Stratford and Lina Barr both work for a large entertainment company and did a brilliant job designing the mural and making it reflective of the kids and the community. They came up with the idea to include Long Beach landmarks with input from the kids. The kids are deeply in touch with their emotions, you can feel the calm, the love of nature, and the sheer joy in their newly painted facade.

Along with the professional muralists, the Boys & Girls Club community came out to help transform the building.

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project color corps_b&g club at long beach

If you LOVE Project Color Corps as much as we do, join the COLOR REVOLUTION and DONATE whatever you can to help support more projects like this. We can’t wait to see what comes in 2021!

MORE to EXPLORE:
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Long Beach Post