The Wallpaper of Words project engaged a community of young artists in pasting screen prints onto public spaces within their neighborhood. Students in Kindergarten through 5th grade who were enrolled in the Centro Nueva Creación after school program began this project by taking pictures of themselves and each other in my photography class. The students paired their favorite imagery with their personal poetry to create cut-and-paste layouts that I formally designed in Photoshop.
17 designs were printed onto silk screens, and the children participated in 4 hour-long screen printing workshops. Sixty students participated, working collaboratively to create nearly 40 usable screen prints that they pasted onto 4, privately-owned, publicly view-able walls. The young people enrolled in Centro’s programs are the proudest spokespeople for their community. Through the Wallpaper of Words project, Centro students were empowered to vitalize their neighborhood by sharing their words and images with their neighbors.