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By JACOB CAMPBELL, OPERATIONS ASSISTANT

Last Sunday, the Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport was filled to the roof with bright colors, tasty food, and smiling children and families as they explored the amazing arts activities at P.S. ARTS’ 17th annual Express Yourself! The team here at P.S. ARTS could not be more proud of the event and grateful to all of the amazing participants, sponsors, and volunteers that brought it to life. This year, we surpassed our fundraising goal, which allows us to continue to provide high-quality arts education to our 20,000 P.S. ARTS students each week. We want to give all of our guests and supporters a heartfelt thank you!

It was so neat to get a behind-the-scenes look at all the hard work that makes this event such a success. I spend a lot of time here in the office designing collateral and marketing materials, and it was incredibly rewarding to see how each person contributed different elements to make one cohesive and exciting event. I have to give a special shout out to our friends at Office Depot (Manhattan Beach), Westside Print Center, and Marina Graphics for doing such a great job printing our Express Yourself materials, and to Taylor Swift for providing the sweet jams at our framing party. You guys rock!

While this wasn’t my first Express Yourself (I volunteered about 3 years ago in my intern days!), it was my first time wearing the “official” fanny-pack/radio headset combo and walking around making sure everything ran smoothly. My favorite new additions to the event this year were: ArtHaus (for Express Yourself veterans), which was decked out in disco balls and offered teens an instagram-inspired frame project and henna tattos; our Social Media Booth with charging stations to ensure everyone had enough battery life for all their Express Yourself-related posts; and Toddler Town, complete with a giant tee-pee custom made for the event by Blaine Halvorson, Demetrius May, and Janis Wales.

PSARTSExpressYourself2014-_EKL4542This year, we had three beautiful mural projects each created in collaboration with an artist–two with renowned street artist RETNA and the other with our very own Teaching Artist Tiffany Graham, whose community mural project at Juan Cabrillo Elementary inspired the design elements of this year’s event. Each artist first outlined the mural, after which every child gave it their own personal touch. RETNA generously donated his murals to P.S. ARTS to be auctioned at the end of the event! Additionally, thanks to Adam and Connie Derry, all proceeds from the ADBD x P.S. ARTS merchandise line at Express Yourself will go towards the creation of a second community mural in the Wiseburn School District!

P.S. ARTS Presents Express Yourself 2014 photo 1(3)Overall, Express Yourself 2014 was a huge success and we hope our guests enjoyed it as much as we did! See you next year!

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