Color the World Bright, a student group led by Professor Joseph Norman, recently completed a mural in Hartwell, Georgia over the course of 17 hours. 

From The Hartwell Sun:

The mural added a splash of color to downtown Hartwell, adorning the southfacing wall of the Hart County Chamber of Commerce building on Carolina Street. The project was facilitated by UGA Archway. Archway has connected Color the World Bright with several businesses in Hartwell over the past year. This mural will be commissioned by the Hart County Chamber of Commerce. 

UGA Archway professional Rosanna Cruz-Bibb said the chamber wanted to create “a sense of place” and to encourage people to sit outside at the patio in front of Common Ground and Elizabeth - Cakes by Design.

Director of Color the World Bright professor Joseph Norman said the organization started more than a decade ago to raise money for kids to study abroad in Latin America but through the notoriety of their work, quickly gained steam. “When I stopped doing study abroad the calls kept coming in,” Norman said.

Norman shows them the steps in creating a mural from ordering the supplies to creating a team to executing the painting. Norman said every project has a hierarchy of different roles. The project manager and associate project manager are in charge. The “high fliers” are the painters who go in the lifts and scaffolding to paint the highest points of the murals. The “middle sitters” are the painters who sit on the scaffolding and paint the middle sections, but aren’t comfortable standing yet. The “paint monkeys” are the gofers and they clean brushes, relay messages and paint the mural closest to the ground. Norman said everyone starts out as a “paint monkey.”

The organization has worked in cities across Georgia and the southeast. Norman said they made approximately $50,000 in commissions last year and the money goes directly to the students. The organization is a way for the students to learn how make a living through art. “I wanted to show them in art you aren’t going to become the flavor of the month when you just graduate. You have to eke out a living,” Norman said. “We’ve had kids pay off student loans, car loans. We’ve had kids pay for a semester’s tuition when their parent lost their job due to COVID.” Norman said murals give a community a sense of pride and start conversations among different people. “It unifies a community, first of all,” Norman said. “It can be a kickstart to unite a community when you find imagery that has a common bond. It brings different types of groups in a community together.”

The mural project on Carolina Street began on April 24 according to Cruz-Bibb. The student project manager is Katie Eidson and the associate project manager is Alondra Arevalo. Norman also said the group will be working on another mural in Hartwell later this year.