The People’s Canvas

by Colin Cooney & Henry Zizmor

The People’s Canvas: Mapping Murals as a Tool for Social Justice Education is a digital resource that connects students, educators, and communities to the powerful role of street art and murals in advancing justice. This interactive map and database showcases murals from across New York City's 5 bouroughs and Long Island, inviting users to move beyond surface-level appreciation of color and style to examine the deeper messages artists embed in their work. Each mural entry is paired with context that aligns with four core pillars—Intersectionality, Advocacy History, Research, and Public Policy—transforming public art into an accessible curriculum for civic learning. The platform equips students with tools to critically analyze art as a form of advocacy, protest, and community storytelling. By situating murals within their historical and policy contexts, The People’s Canvas demonstrates how visual culture serves as both a mirror and a catalyst for social change. Ultimately, the project provides a vibrant, participatory way to understand how art shapes, and is shaped by, movements for justice.

About The Founders

 

  • I'm a student at Chaminade High School in Mineola, NY, and a National Youth Advocacy Corps fellow through the Rustin Institute. I've always been drawn to art — both discovering the work of known and unknown artists and developing my own technique. I co-founded Widen the Frame NYC and the Cultural Attaché podcast to help other young people see museums and public art as spaces they belong in.

    The People's Canvas grew out of that same belief, applied to the walls we pass every day rather than the ones inside a museum. Through an internship with the Thrive for Life Prison Project and volunteering with the Free Minds Poetry Project, both dedicated to people impacted by incarceration, I saw firsthand how much power a message and a piece of public beauty can hold for a community. Street murals don't wait for permission to be seen. This project is my attempt to show how much they're already saying.

    Both Colin and Henry, along with 2 other peers, are co-founders of Widen The Frame, a student-led organization that helps young people across New York experience art  in museums and in the world around them. They also support the Cultural Attache’ podcast where they are ambassadors sharing what they love most about art in New York City.

  • Henry Zizmor (he/him) is a junior at Little Red Elizabeth Irwin (LREI) High School in New York City who is passionate about understanding how the arts can be used to build community and inspire civic engagement. He is also a co-founder and member of the executive leadership team of the Friendly Fridge Network, a student-run 501c3 organization that fights food insecurity. In addition to helping mobilize over 325 volunteers at 24 locations in the New York metropolitan region, Henry is in charge of creating the artwork for the fridges.

    Henry enjoys writing and in 2024 and 2025 completed the New York Jewish Week Teen Journalism Fellowship, where he published an article about a young activist raising awareness about the importance of genetic screening for early cancer detection. He was also honored to receive the Scholastic Alliance for Young Writers Gold Key Award in Poetry in March 2025.

    Henry is a member of the LREI Literary Magazine and Jewish Affinity Club, and he participates in the Groundswell Community Mural and the Brooklyn Museum Teen Art programs. In his free time, he loves to draw, paint, write, read, play basketball, root for the Yankees, and study the poetry of Hip-Hop.

    Along with two other peers, both Henry and Colin are co-founders of Widen The Frame, a student-led organization that helps young people across New York experience art  in museums and in the world around them. They also support the Cultural Attache’ podcast where they are ambassadors sharing what they love most about art in New York City.