Publicolor Founder
Ruth Lande Shuman hosted an intimate cocktail reception at
her home to celebrate groundbreaking composer Philip Glass
and Chris Ward (AECOM VP and CEO, Metro New York, and former
Executive Director of Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey). The two will be honored at Publicolor's upcoming
April gala, "Stir Splatter + Roll".
While working from
the Port Authority, Ward instrumentally secured Publicolor's
2002 community revitalization project, The Painted
Promenade. Students in the Publicolor program, from high
schools across the City, painted a bridge on West 39th
Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in sunshine yellow
and turquoise blue. Sixteen years later, the colorfully
painted walls have become a fixture in Hell's Kitchen (and
the backdrop to the famed Hell's Kitchen Flea Market). This
project was made possible thanks to Ward's tireless support.
Publicolor fights
poverty by aggressively addressing the alarming dropout rate
and low levels of educational attainment and youth
employment in New York City. They do this by engaging
high-risk students, ages 12-24, in a long-term continuum of
intensive, multi-day, design-based programs to encourage
academic achievement, community service, college preparation
and job readiness. Their unique applied learning approach
uses design and design thinking as vehicles to engage,
stimulate and inspire at-risk, low-performing students in
our city’s struggling middle and high schools, empowering
them to achieve success in school, college, career and life.
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