From a Can of Paint:
Publicolor’s Use of Design in Transforming Schools and Students
An Interview with Ruth Shuman, Founder of Publicolor
Conducted by Bijey Narayan and Adam Zoltowski
Issue 8 Summer 2011
Executive Summary
CATALYST and Ruth Lande Shuman of Publicolor discuss how the interior spaces of schools have both profound effects on students and on learning experiences. Beginning with her background in design, Shuman takes us on her journey of the founding of Publicolor and how she envisioned design as a core element that can be used to strengthen the educational experiences, and lives, of America’s most at-risk youth. She comments on how the simple act of painting a school’s hallways and classrooms, with student participation, can influence the mindset of the students within, changing their life trajectory forever. In explaining Publicolors’ tiered structure, designed specifically to provide structure for students and their schools, we are shown how skills learned in one area of life can impact all others. Through conversations with real-life participants of the program Shuman helps uncover how collaborative contribution and strategic design can help improve inner-city students’ ability to achieve their own version of the Good Life.
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CATALYST: How can design help individuals create their own vision of the good life?
Ruth Shuman (RS): The environment of a school and the environment of a neighborhood impact the behavior of people using the school, or living in the neighborhood. There are definitely organizations that are trying to do something about neighborhoods, but no one is addressing the environment of schools. I feel very strongly that by introducing design and color you can change attitudes and behavior as well as create visual order in environments where chaos reigns supreme
“I feel very strongly that by introducing design and color you can change attitudes and behavior as well as create visual order in environments where chaos reigns supreme.”
CATALYST: What was the approach Publicolor took to get started?
RS: I started with a pilot project at JHS 99 in East Harlem, and my approach was simple; I thought, “If I put a paintbrush in the hands of disaffected students,” I’d engage in their education. They’d feel a sense of ownership and pride in their school, and they’d be my anti-posse. Nobody is doing this. Nobody put actions to any kind of observations they have been making. Most schools look and feel like
prisons. They are undifferentiated environments, usually painted one color: beige or grey. And everything looks the same. You can’t tell the difference between security doors, exit doors and classroom doors. This is a form of sensory deprivation – similar to what the military uses as a form of torture! How can we expect students to feel energized to learn in these environments?
This is a total disconnect between conditions and expectations. So we introduced and continue to create visual order and energy. If you stimulate the eye, you stimulate the brain. I deliberately teach the students how to create harmonious color chords – you want to stimulate the eye, not tax it with harsh combinations, and then we hold a school-wide vote so everyone feels like they participated.
CATALYST: How did you make the connection between the unique problems in schools and the use of color as a solution?
RS: In the 1980’s I was very active in the Big Apple Circus. Through my participation in that I got to see a lot of inner city middle schools. At the time there was also a lot of media attention around our country’s alarming dropout rate. All the schools looked and felt institutional and totally unwelcoming.
I was at Pratt at the time. I loved working with color. A light bulb went off: I knew that if I put a paint brush in disaffected students’ hands, and we changed together the way that their schools look and feel that I could engage them in their education. I was that confident that it would absolutely work, and it did.
CATALYST: What stakeholders did you need to engage to get the program off the ground?
RS: The pilot was not difficult. The woman who ran arts and education for the Big Apple Circus was an educator herself. For many years, she had been saying she wanted to work together on something outside of the circus itself. I’m a designer, she is an educator, and what can we do?
Once I had the idea, I brought it to her, and it just made sense. She let me into her East Harlem School, and gave me all the hallways on the five floors to work with and four double stairwells.
She brought in representatives from Estee Lauder who asked me to make presentations to groups from the different companies under the Estée Lauder umbrella to expand the number of volunteers who would paint with me after students and teachers helped me prime all the spaces. A group of leading educational consultants stopped by and asked me to help them turn around a failing inner-city high school in Newark.
Rudy Crew, the then school chancellor, also stopped by and declared that what I was doing was “A catalyst for change; I want your program in my schools.”
I wrote my first proposal to the city. I got another pilot in Bed-Stuy with the help of the Department of Education. This was MS57, the lowest performing school in the system – we continue to focus almost exclusively on struggling schools with principals who are committed to change. We worked seven days a week, but it was working and making an impact.
CATALYST: Was there resistance to your initiatives? What hurdles did you have to overcome?
RS: Principals resisted. They were afraid it would disrupt the school even more. They said, “You’re going to paint these colors? In my schools?” Fortunately, I had on my founding board, one of the city’s most respected educators. He took me to meet with superintendents. He was a champion for us, and people paid more attention and took us more seriously. It took getting positive feedback from the principals of schools where we had been successful to get buy in from the new principals.
CATALYST: I imagine in the beginning it would have been very experimental, when did the organizational side of the program begin to emerge? When did the system evolve that you could replicate?
RS: By the time I was at my third school, it was clear how we should do it. For example in our paint club program in that school, after we finished we decided to start a new program. We wanted to celebrate completion. We held an awards ceremony, and hold them every now and then after each project, and on this particular one, as we were leaving, some of the kids were begging us to stay. We felt like we were walking out on them after this great experience together. We needed to create a way to stay in touch with them after the initial project. I decided we’d go back to do weekly touch-ups.
Then at our next project there was a student who was not attending school because he was getting harassed. He was very poor; he got made fun of, bullied. So I hired him to be my assistant. I noticed right away he didn’t know how to work. He had almost no sense of organization or initiative. He thought leaders were bullies. So I realized my next program was going to teach kids how to work.
When you work with at-risk kids, many of them are suffering from low self-esteem, so we built in daily small accomplishments and tasks that would allow them to build their confidence. Painting a door, taping a keyhole. They’re all successes and build into their sense of self worth. We wanted to leave behind a culture of rigor.
CATALYST: How does the program impact student’s ability to learn?
RS: The safety factor is also huge. When minds are frozen by fear, teachers can’t teach effectively and students can’t learn. When confronted with danger, the brain releases cortisol, which blocks the formation of long-term memory. In prison-like schools we can’t be surprised these kids aren’t performing. They’re terrified.
All you need to do is remove the person from the fearful environment or change the environment, and the physiological effects will go away. 86% of our underachieving kids graduate high school in four years vs. 42% at their schools, and 100% go on to college, all from a can of paint.
We administer pre and post surveys at all of our schools and last year 90% of teachers reported having higher expectations of our students, and these were kids who were low performers before. High expectations are key to better performance.
CATALYST: So it’s about applying a positive psychology?
RS: It is showing kids they can be forces of good in any community they belong to, through design. The kids become a second family for one another. They have experienced so many broken promises. They don’t trust easily. We tell them they can behave however they want; we’re not going to walk out. They constantly test us. But we won’t go anywhere, and they know that.
The kids aren’t so jaded that they can’t see the truth when faced with it. They will react to honesty.
CATALYST: What have you seen that teachers are doing well, and what could they do better?
RS: When I was working in the schools, I was pretty horrified by how teachers treated students. I’ve spoken up about this before. Security guards bully the kids as well, and I think they made problems worse, when I was in the schools. I’m more aware that principals have gotten a lot better. It feels to me as though the quality has improved since we started. They’re more willing to go to bat for the kids. In the beginning they weren’t engaged at all.
CATALYST: How does the system work, on each project?
RS: We’re teaching them a language. It’s a language of logic. They have to think about each aspect of the project as they go. When you prepare the space, you need to figure what you are doing and why you are doing it. What are you taping first and why? We teach the kids how to break the entire project down into a logical sequence of achievable goals so that they are not overwhelmed by the large scope of the project.
We also teach them that mistakes are opportunities. Give them the freedom to fail, to try again.
Editorial Note: At this point in the interview, a Publicolor student named Tray entered the room.
RS: This is one of our students. We were talking about how there is no such thing as a mistake; it’s an opportunity to get more creative. We’re pushing boundaries. But it is an opportunity for the kids to get it right, and it translates to their approach to homework. I’m sure Tray can tell you more about it.
CATALYST: It’s like learning to do mathematics by calculating your batting average in baseball. Apply the same principle or concept to something you care about. It’s about transference of strategies for positive Reinforce.
RS: Right. Tray, can you talk about positive results in your experiences?
Tray: Usually I hate math. Until I related it to how many rebounds I had in one game. It made it a positive result for me. I took what I learned in one place and applied it to another.
RS: So much of it is practical. If you can teach through real life experiences, you’ll see an impact. It is not unlike design. My advisor for my Masters program was Gaetano Pesce. He talked about Organic Architecture and Personalized Design. He invented individualized mass production. He wants empathy to be a part of design. Abstract is hard to relate to, especially for students, but if you make it real, they get it, especially for students in these environments.
So our designs are personalized. None of the schools look the same. Tray’s school looks entirely different from other schools. It’s because the kids choose the color scheme. They influence the final product. Some kids will even speak up and say, “We can’t use these colors because they represent gangs.”
Tray: Since we painted the school, people attend more often. For me, it brings me joy and happiness to come to school. Students will spend time together in areas of the school they didn’t before. Our attendance rates are now up to 75%, where they were 30% before we painted the school.
“I feel very strongly that by introducing design and color you can change attitudes and behavior as well as create visual order in environments where chaos reigns supreme.”
CATALYST: How long have you been in the program?
Tray: I’ve been in the program for six months. I didn’t know what painting could do for me, but it’s done a lot. I just graduated a few weeks ago.
CATALYST: What are your plans now?
Tray: To go to college. I want to study aviation.
RS: This is really about supplementing what is going on in the classroom already – at Tray’s school and many other schools. There are way too few college and career counselors. The students are so under-served so we at Publicolor have a college and career prep program. We have weekly tutoring, and career exposure workshops, so we can help and provide the guidance they need to take those next steps. Right now, a lot of kids want to get involved, but we need funding to expand our reach. There aren’t a lot of options for older students to do something productive. And if they aren’t doing something productive, they are going to do something destructive with their energy. As a country we are sitting on gold – our young people, and we need to maximize their potential.
CATALYST: How does this feed into the ‘good life’, and people’s personal definition of it?
RS: As people transform schools they transform themselves. I’ve said to Tray, when he
told me he was in a gang, “Let us be your gang.” Our kids are very close. They take care of each other.
Tray: Since I’ve been with Publicolor, I haven’t been getting into trouble any more. I’ve tried to convince my friends to get involved. I used to be in a gang. I’ve convinced a few to check Publicolor out. Before, I wasn’t that safe. Now I stay home. Up in the Bronx, there are a lot of gangs. Shootings, and stabbings, this stuff happens all the time, so I spend a lot of my time down here at Publicolor.
“When minds are frozen by fear, teachers can’t teach effectively and students can’t learn.”
Catalyst: Have you seen an impact at home?
Tray: Yeah. I started painting my room. I’m still working on it. I use light and bright colors so when I come into my house I feel positive. It regenerates me. I want to do it for my nephews and cousins. I want to see the impact on them. If it changed me, hopefully it will change them.
CATALYST: And you are working on all of this on your own?
Tray: Yeah, I do all of this myself. I didn’t know I could love art like this. But there’s nothing wrong with adding something new to your life. I’m trying to get my friends to do it, too. Usually, they’re doing something destructive. Now, it’s on my terms. If they want to see me they need to come to my house.
CATALYST: It’s given you the chance to live life on your terms, instead of the gang’s terms.
Tray: So far so good. My friends are in less trouble now since I turned my act around. I used to start fights, make fun of people. Not anymore. Life is too short for that sort of thing.
CATALYST: What has changed you: the counseling or the painting?
Tray: Both. I know I have a lot of potential. This gave me the step and the power to do it. I’m here every day now. It keeps me out of trouble. Ever since I painted my room, my nephews want to be in there and nowhere else.
CATALYST: Have you experienced a change in people’s reactions to you?
Tray: I definitely get more respect. My friends want to follow what I’ve been doing. I feel like I could spread this around the neighborhood. I decided I wanted to do something for the school before I leave, and the teachers and principal respected me more as a result. They loved me because I helped make the school a better place.
“When minds are frozen by fear, teachers can’t teach effectively and students can’t learn.”
This is the next step. What we can do for others. When this hit, it had a huge impact. Attendance went up. People socialized more.
CATALYST: Does it reflect on your grades?
Tray: My grades are up now. Last spring I was in the 60’s now they’re never below 85%.
Editorial Note: Another Publicolor student, Thiemo, entered the room
RS: This is Thiemo. He’s gone through all of our programs and works at Estée Lauder now. His path was not straight. When we first painted together he was in middle school in Fort Greene and then went to a high school that was full of gangs. We saw a huge change in him through Publicolor. We helped him transfer to a better school in Manhattan. He entered it as captain of the paint club.
Thiemo: I got into Bard High School early college. You graduate with your Associate’s Degree and your High School Diploma. I went into college with 50 credits at 18 yrs old. Publicolor helped me do this.
It’s a great place to be. It taught me a lot about life: how to work with people, how to accept yourself. Learning to paint is great, but it’s about more than that. As a young kid you don’t want to talk to anyone you don’t know. You don’t trust anyone.
The kids in these communities are so disadvantaged. They don’t understand the system. They’re in situations that leave them entangled. The system takes advantage of them. They have to learn that people will help them.
Many times the kids are so ignorant of their situation; they don’t believe this is possible. Once I realized I could make something of myself that was it. And here I am.
“Design better products. Design better schools. Use design to engage kids.”
CATALYST: It’s about attitude change then?
Thiemo: Self-awareness is the key. The person in trouble needs to wake up. You have to understand what you need to change about yourself
CATALYST: What happens if a student gets in trouble?
RS: We’ve had some kids get in trouble, and they ended up in Rikers Island. Our door was still open to them when they got out.
We had one in a situation, where a student – who by the way, had graduated high school functionally illiterate, became a drug dealer. We had to tell him to leave the program. It was a no-brainer, certain things are non negotiable. Drug dealers destroy families, but I also told him to come back when he was willing to turn his life around. It upset him. He ultimately worked his way back. He stopped dealing, and he’s back with us now playing a huge part. Because of him and other students who couldn’t read, we started our next steps prep summer literacy and math immersion program six years ago. We teach through product design – so our students have no idea they’re in school. We hold these classes every morning for seven weeks on Pratt’s campus. Afternoons are spent painting under-resourced but vital community facilities like local health clinics, homeless shelters, community centers, and police precincts. We even get the police to paint alongside our students. These shared projects build bridges of trust between two groups who historically have been hostile to one another.
CATALYST: What’s next for Publicolor?
RS: We are working on incorporating more design into our programs, specifically the practice of design thinking. We hired a design educator, to embed the practice of design into the program more fully. Last year, because the mayor named us one of the lead partners in his totally cool roof project, we started paint club +, which is a program that targets over, under-credited young adults. We teach a sustainability curriculum that we developed- the board of Education awarded it four credits for eight weeks – as well as white coating and commercial painting. This summer we plan to white coat school playgrounds and embed games with science-based graphics in the overall design so children will learn even when they’re playing. We’ve had two pilot cohorts and averaged 98% daily attendance.
CATALYST: What more can design programs do to educate students towards addressing these issues?
RS: Design is an untapped reservoir. More and more people can have huge impact on the quality of people’s lives through design. Design better products. Design better schools. Use design to engage kids. It’s underused. There seems to be great interest to use design to address these issues in colleges nowadays, especially at Pratt. Young people seem more interested in design beyond just making a better chair, so these kinds of things need to be a part of the curriculum, and faculty and students need to engage with communities in meaningful ways. High school kids are planting organic gardens on school roofs. This is fantastic. It’s the way we need to be thinking. We need more of that approach. Use design to make a difference.
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CATALYST INSIGHT:
Design programs that have multiple levels of completion to ensure long-term effectiveness.
STRATEGIES IN ACTION:
Maximize school performance by preventing academic slip-backs, gangs and number of overaged and under credited students.
Redesign academic environment through student participation to ensure more engagement
and participation in education.
Renew academic culture through informal programs of career counseling, apprenticeship & scholarships.
Enable transference of work habits from practice to academics through a culture of rigor and discipline.
Improve students’ mind-set and performance through increased productivity, attendance, involvement and interest.
Maximize school performance by preventing academic slip-backs, gangs and number of over-aged and under-credited students.
Prepare the student community to face bigger future challenges in life after school.
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Contributor’s Bio:
Consultant
Ruth Lande Shuman is an industrial designer specializing in using design and color for social service. In 1996, Ms. Shuman founded Publicolor, a NYC-based not-for-profit organization, that engages at-risk students in their education by initially involving them in painting warm colors in all the public spaces of their schools, and then guiding them towards career and college through a continuum of youth development programs. In 2000, on behalf of Publicolor, Ms. Shuman received the President’s Service Award, the nation’s highest honor for volunteer service.
Ms. Shuman has been deeply committed to community-based volunteer work for over thirty years, most notably as founding trustee of the Big Apple Circus, where she served as an active board member for
17 years. She is a former trustee of the Rowena Reed Kostellow Fund at Pratt Institute, the Women’s Council at the University of Pennsylvania, the Mayor’s Voluntary Action Center, and The Kitchen, a preeminent presenter of contemporary performing arts. She was also a member of the Union Free School Board of the Wiltwyck School, Ossining, NY. Ms. Shuman also served as the Mayor’s representative to the board of the Museum of Art & Design in New York City.
Prior to founding Publicolor, Ms. Shuman assisted Gaetano Pesce on projects in Japan and France, and coordinated a large design exhibition and the accompanying award–winning Abrams book Mondo Materialis for Steelcase Design Partnership. The exhibition traveled to major museums in the United States. Ms. Shuman received her B.A. in 1964 from the University of Pennsylvania and completed her M.S. in Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in 1989, where she also completed a six-month post-graduate study
on the psychological effects of color. Ms. Shuman has two fabulous sons, a wonderful daughter-in-law and an adorable grandson.
Resources:
Publicolor
COLRD