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NYC in Full Bloom

Cleveland youngsters help decorate taxi cabs.

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Six-year-old Isaiah, a kindergarten student at Cleveland’s Newton D. Baker Elementary School of Arts, has never traveled to NYC, but, come fall, his artwork will adorn the Big Apple’s famous yellow taxis.

Isaiah and approximately 60 classmates took part in Garden in Transit, a temporary public art project that will be displayed on NYC’s taxicabs from September through December 2007. This privately funded project will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the city’s first metered taxi.

Portraits of Hope, a nonprofit group started by brothers Ed and Bernie Massey in 1995, encourages hospitalized children to create public art. Previous projects include wrapping a tugboat and an air-traffic control tower. Now, the group has received the go-ahead from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to decorate the city’s cabs, which is allowed only once every 100 years.

But how to decorate approximately 13,000 taxis? That’s where Stow, OH-based MACtac comes in. MACtac products will be used exclusively for the project, namely the IMAGin® B-Free vinyl, with the company donating a portion of it.

Approximately 800,000 sq. ft. of vinyl will cover the floors of after-school programs, hospitals and pediatric-care centers in cities across America, Bernie said.

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MACtac volunteers were also on hand on May 23, when the Newton D. Baker students gathered in between the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Quicken Loans Arena and Jacobs Field (home of the Indians) to personally stamp some history-making art.

Decked out with sunscreen and a special Garden in Transit T-shirt to protect their clothes (some of which, by the end of the day, were covered with as much paint as the vinyl) the children paired up and planned what color each flower would be, while others just grabbed the nearest cup of paint and started in.

Carrol Chang, from the Garden in Transit team, encouraged the children to paint lightly so the brushstrokes showed. “That way everyone can tell it was painted by a real person,” she explained.

They didn’t have to worry about the black lines, however. In fact, painting onto the lines was encouraged, as every panel was going to be shipped to California and re-stamped to highlight the colors before being installed on the cabs.

Many students suddenly wished to visit the Big Apple to see their artwork. “We’re gonna be famous?” was a common refrain among the kids.

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These Cleveland students were part of Portraits of Hope’s creative therapy project, which reaches out not only to hospitals, but to schools. While creating public art, participants also learn valuable lessons about social issues, with each lesson tailored to the students’ ages.

While kindergartners turned the vinyl rows into a vibrant, two-dimensional garden, second-graders painted toy taxis, which represented the possibility for change. Students discussed issues such as poverty, racism and war with the help of the Masseys and other volunteers. Later, the second-graders had a chance to decorate some vinyl.

“The cabs symbolize taking [an] issue and moving it from here to here,” Bernie Massey said, using his arms to measure potential progress.

He adds, through their participation, thousands of kids, like young Isaiah, not only bestow an artistic grace, but also “learn about important current events, community issues, individual and social responsibilities, goals and the power of teamwork.”

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Other in-school sessions, similar to the one held outside Jacobs Field, focus on kids integrating their writing, oral and visual presentation skills to express those individual and societal ideas.

Newton D. Baker Elementary was one of the few schools outside NYC chosen to participate in the project, partly because art therapy permeates its curriculum, said Tanika Snyder, speaking on MACtac’s behalf. Philadelphia, Atlanta and Los Angeles are the only other cities participating.

The charity has developed numerous brushes for hospitalized children, from shoe brushes, long, “telescope” brushes, even flavored mouth brushes, so that every child – and their families – can take part, regardless of their illness or injury.

As a group, the students evaluated the importance of such contemporary issues as poverty, the environment and education. One by one, the children stood before fellow classmates and volunteers, held their individually painted, 10-in. taxis and discussed issues bigger than themselves. Perhaps, also, it was the beginning of some understanding.

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