After receiving my Master's of Arts in Painting from New York University in 2005, I founded an alternative art school in the historic Ninth Square district of Downtown New Haven called the Adae Fine Art Academy.  At our brick and mortar location we provide individualized instruction in drawing and painting to children, adolescents, adults in the Greater New Haven area.  We also operate a Mobile Art Studio that provides off site art lessons to elderly artists in the Alzheimer's and dementia wing of assisted living centers; artists residing in transitional living facilities for people with schizophrenia; young adults in mental health clinics; and children in after school programs. In addition to maintaining a rigorous studio practice, we curate annual exhibitions which showcase the artwork of our students.  When we are not teaching we contribute to the discourse of public art in our community by creating murals.  We design murals and collaborate with our students, local non-profit organizations, and residents in the community to install them.  In the past six years I have designed and orchestrated the installation of sixteen murals.  Thirteen in private businesses, public spaces, and green spaces in the Greater New Haven area.  The other three were self funded by creating watercolor stop motion animation projects as our crowdfunding campaign videos on Kickstarter to raise a total of approximately $30,000 to cover travel, material, and installation costs for three international mural projects.  We installed one mural at the APV School in the Garwhal Himalayas of northern India, another at La Escuela Chu-ul in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, and one at Fundacion Arte Del Mundo a children's literacy center in Baños De Agua Santa, Tungurahua, Ecuador. We love bringing people in diverse communities together to collaborate and experience firsthand the transformative power of art in public spaces.