Artist, activist, humanitarian, teacher, dancing queen, and woman in the spotlight of this Weekly Feature, Amy Sananman, is doing her part to make a positive impact in her community through the use of tactfully placed artwork: one mural at a time.
Amy is based in Brooklyn, New York and in addition to being a talented artist, also serves as the Director of Groundswell Community Mural Project. Groundswell is kind of like a hybrid between an artist network and a mentor organization that attempts to bring people in impoverished communities together for the greater good of inspiring and helping out their future youth of tomorrow.
One of the things we find most interesting about Groundswell is the wide variety of personalities involved with the projects. Members of the projects come from all different backgrounds, age groups, professions, neighborhoods, and levels of experience but are able to collaborate together and work in unison. As a result of this Groundswell has created something special that you don’t see everyday, which we fully stand behind and support 100%.
The amount of handwork and dedication Amy has invested into Groundswell is clearly evident and certainly commendable in our eyes. As you read Amy Sananman’s Weekly Feature, you will immediately see how passionate Amy is about her work… But even more so, how passionate she is about making a difference in her community. Enjoy!
Name: Amy Sananman
Place of Residence: Brooklyn NY
Current Jam: Anything Velvet Underground or Los Van Van. Always & Forever.
Favorite Food: Mango
Mode of Self Expression: List-making & Dancing (but not at the same time)
Ark: Hey Amy. Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with us. Could you begin by telling us a little bit about yourself?
Amy: I am the founding Executive Director of Groundswell Community Mural Project. Groundswell’s mission is to bring together professional artists, grassroots organizations and communities to create high quality murals in under-represented neighborhoods and inspire youth to take active ownership of their future by equipping them with the tools necessary for social change. Over the past fifteen years Groundswell has worked with thousands of community members to complete more than 300 collaboratively designed and painted murals across New York City.
Ark: Who are a few of your favorite artists, musicians, philanthropists, or personalities that you have looked up to over the years?
Amy: I am going to keep it really local:
- Joe Matunis, muralist, activist, educator taught me how to do my first community mural and helped start Groundswell with me. I am forever grateful to him.
- Jon Pounds, Executive Director of Chicago Public Art Group—a great thinker, activist, artist and leader—has been a great mentor and support to Groundswell over the years.
- Michelle Coffey- Director of the Lambent Foundation is a visionary and ally in using art as a tool for social change.
Ark: We think what you guys are doing with the Groundswell Community Mural Project is awesome and we fully support your cause! For those that may have never heard about the Groundswell Community Mural Project, could you please explain what exactly it is and how it was originally started?
Amy: Mural making has historically united cultural and political expression within the context of struggles for and celebrations of freedom throughout the world. Although mural making continues to exist in urban environments in the United States, the tradition of organized, hand-painted community mural projects pioneered in the United States in the 1930s and resurrected in the 1960s, has virtually disappeared. Over the past two decades, nonprofit agencies in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia have taken the lead in bringing back, preserving, and creating community murals. In the absence of such a group in New York City, we founded Groundswell Community Mural Project in 1996 to organize, develop, and facilitate community murals. We founded Groundswell based on the belief that there is something unique and powerful about the community mural making process, which combines the sanctity of personal expression with the strength of community activism. Groundswell’s programs are based on principles of individual, group and community development. Collaborating with communities and fostering community activism, we strive to physically and mentally build up the individual, group or community during the making of the mural.
The name “Groundswell” was inspired by our first project. Low-income residents of city-owned properties were organizing to convert their buildings into cooperatives, which they would then manage themselves. Despite the great swell of activity and organizing occurring within these buildings, the work was indiscernible from the street. We thought it important to bring that community activism from the walls inside to the walls outside. Public art provided the perfect vehicle for showing the swell of activity that came from the core or base of an individual, group or community. A groundswell is a sudden surge of growth or a wave of energy surfacing from beneath the ocean. At Groundswell—we support the energy and stories hidden behind walls to be expressed on the walls.
Ark: Let’s talk about creativity and inspiration for a moment. Whether it’s in your personal life or while working with the students on the Mural Project, where do you usually look to for inspiration or encourage the students to look to for inspiration?
Amy: Every mural team inspires. Each Groundswell mural is developed, designed and painted by a team of two Groundswell artists about 15 youth in partnership with a community organization, school or city agency. The inspiration comes from the team itself. Each mural is unique and could only have been made by that group of people in that moment in time. Collaborative creativity inspires me.
Ark: We’re all about learning the stories behind and the creative processes different artists take when it comes time to design a new piece of art. In regards to the collaborative murals what factors are involved with choosing a location and is there some form of routine the group usually sticks before getting to work to or does it vary each time?
Amy: We don’t do ‘plop art.” Rather Groundswell’s projects are primarily by invitation from a community partner.
Our projects follow key milestones. We begin by establishing project objectives. Following an orientation, each mural team begins to research the mural topic and use this information to develop a theme for the project and a visual language to explore the theme. The research and design phase generally includes discussions with the community partner and local residents, conversations with people who are working to advance change in an area related to the mural theme, as well as design sessions in which the team develops a vocabulary of images, colors and gestures. A key role of the Groundswell Artists is to integrate these visual ideas into a mural design that has its own integrity as an artistic statement, while preserving the individual contributions of team members.
Early in the design phase, the team reviews its initial ideas for themes and images with the community partner in order to ensure the mural reflects an accurate understanding of the topic and the partner’s objectives for the mural. Once an advanced design is completed, the design is presented to neighborhood residents and other representatives for feedback and concerns.
Once the community partner and Groundswell’s artistic staff approve a final design, the execution phase begins. Each team has members with a mix of experiences and backgrounds in art in order to facilitate mentoring and inter-group support.
Ark: Was there a specific “a ha” moment in your life when you realized you wanted to turn your passion and appreciation or art into a long-term career, or did it just kind of come to be naturally?
Amy: Murals have always fascinated me as the crossroads of art, politics, creativity and activism. Painting was a personal practice for me, never a vocation. I had focused my career path on changing the world through affordable housing and economic development. It was when my best friend committed suicide that I allowed myself to connect to the importance of internal or spiritual wellbeing with the importance of societal equity. The first mural I did was a new year’s resolution. It took me a year. The impact of that project was the impetus to start Groundswell. The rest is one-part passion and one-part endurance.
Ark: Alright. Now it’s time for the “Lightning Round.” If you could please answer as quickly as possible, we’d appreciate it.
*Amy’s answers are in RED
- Aerosol or water-based wall paint? – Waterbased & Non Toxic
- Paint brushes or rollers? – BOTH!
- Salvador Dali or Claude Monet? –Dali meets Monet
- Summer or winter? – Summer in the City
- Milkshake or ice cream sundae? – Sundae (combination of cold ice cream & hot fudge)
Ark: What is the strangest, most memorable, funny, awkward…(fill in the blank) encounter your affiliation with Groundswell has led you to over the years?
Amy: We once had to call on the local fire department to help us with a tricky scaffolding situation. We asked how we could ever repay them and they requested someone come to paint their logo on the fire house dining room table. Another Groundswell artist and I got to spend the day at the fire house. It was incredible to spend 8 hours in that subculture. The constant parade of cooking included them barbequing inside the fire house. Isn’t that a fire hazard?
Ark: As there are highs and lows associated with every profession. What would you personally consider to be the most rewarding, and adversely, the most frustrating part about pursuing a career as an artist?
Amy: Working with people is the greatest and hardest part of our work. Collaborating with so many different kinds of people—teens from all different cultures, wall owners, city agencies, funders—requires a lot of clear communication. Lots of people talk about the importance of working as a team. At Groundswell we live it. Sometimes it is tiring, but it is always exciting and inspiring.
Ark: What are a few of your other hobbies and interests/ how do you like to spend your free time when you’re not creating art or working with the students on the Groundswell Community Mural Project?
Amy: Dancing with my husband. Hanging out with my kids. Cooking…. alone!
Ark: What else can we expect from the Groundswell Community Mural Project over the course of the next year?
Amy: Using art to mobilize Bronx residents to improve their streets, traffic signs designed by 5th graders, murals to raise awareness about gun-prevention policies, using a jail wall to promote restorative justice.
Ark: Thanks to taking the time to answer or questions Amy. Any last words for the readers?
Amy: Next time you see a piece of public art—think about the people who created it and how their stories impact you.
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Here are a few photos of awesome murals done by Amy and the Groundswell Community Mural Project
New York City is a Rollercoaster
Groundswell Community Mural Project 2008
Acrylic on cement, 600 Sq Ft (on multiple walls)
Lead Artist: Belle Benfield
Assistant Artist: Chris Beck
Youth Artists: Participants in Groundswell’s Summer Leadership Institute
Community Partners: New York City Department of Transportation, Office of the Mayor
Informed, Empowered
Groundswell Community Mural Project 2008
Acrylic on Cement, 38 x 50 ft plus left extension 14 x 30 ft
Lead Artist: Katie Yamasaki
Assistant Artist: Menshahat Ebron
Youth Artists: Participants in Groundswell’s Voices Her’d Visionaries program
Community Partner: Fifth Avenue Committee
For more information about the Groundswell Community Mural Project visit their website http://www.groundswellmural.org/
