The Public Service Artists Guild has an ongoing relationship with EBC High School for Public Service in Bushwick, creating artworks within the school and promoting the concept of public service and community stewardship through art. In the spring of 2015, artist/former EBC teacher Thomas Gleisner and Principal Shawn Brown put out a call to artists, both local and international, to transform the walls of EBC into a living museum of murals. With next to no budget and working within the constraints of operating in a busy Brooklyn public High School, the project continues to be a marvel of community engagement in Bushwick. The project has connected over 100 artists to volunteer for the school, painting murals, conducting workshops, and serving as mentors to the students. EBC High School for Public Service now has the largest collection of murals ever painted in a public school, inside or outside New York City. The murals have quickly become part of the fabric of the school, serving to inspire the students by supporting a more positive learning environment. Teachers of all subjects have embraced the murals as learning tools and have written robust lesson plans incorporating them into units in English Language Arts, Social Studies, ESL, and Science.
The ongoing mural project at EBC is intended to not only decorate the walls of the school, but to open up learning opportunities and channels for student community engagement. EBC High School is centrally located in Bushwick, making it ideally situated to be closely involved in the thriving street art/mural scene located there. The students have the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of artists in collaborations on every level.