ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Have you ever wondered how murals came to be? 

“It just started as this big blank wall and the fact that in three days it's turned into this is just really amazing,” said Callista Daly, a youth worker for Roc Paint Division.

“We projected it onto a wall, sketched it with paint markers, and then on the first day we started assigning everyone to a different color,” said youth worker Rain Lehner.

High school students in the city of Rochester’s Roc Paint Division program are paid to make their city beautiful by creating murals on city property. 

What You Need To Know

  • Art can be a way to care for yourself and your community

  • Roc Paint Division pays students to use their creativity in painting murals on city property

  • Any student between ages 16 -19 who are enrolled in high school and living in the city of Rochester can apply

“We really think that one of the most powerful things about our program is the fact that we are showing young people that they can actually make a living doing something they love,” said Justin Suarez, public art coordinator for Roc Paint Division.

Their most recent mural is focusing on something that hits home.

“We wanted to depict different types of care. There’s examples of self-care, care in the community, care for others,” said Lehner.

And just what care means to the students.

“It means a lot of things,” Lehner said. 

“Even just like checking in, sending a text like, ‘Hey, how are you doing,'” said Daly.

“Looking at it, I can sometimes see people I know," said another youth worker, Cassandra Orellana. "Like, for example, the drawing. It reminds me when I was younger with my brother."

It's giving students a new way to look at caring for themselves and their community.

“I got involved because of my art teacher,” said Orellana. “For me it’s become a way for me to just be myself as well as putting all the emotions that I have into a piece.”

“There’s people getting their hair done, people drawing, people talking [and] hugging," Lehner said. "And it’s all just showing these different aspects of taking care of yourself and taking care of other people and what that looks like for different people."

And it's showing them the beauty of caring.

“When they’re painting at different R-centers, the younger students that are there get to see these older students leaving their mark and also, you know, getting paid to do it,” said Sarah C. Rutherford, public art coordinator for Roc Paint Division.

“You sort of step back after being so close to it and it's like, 'Wow we did that,'” said Daly.