St. Paul artists craft coloring book to help kids, neighbors heal post-ICE surge
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In the face of heightened immigration enforcement earlier this year, Minnesotans showed up for one another, organizing marches, coordinating food drop-offs and donation drives and offering strangers and loved ones their support. A new coloring book captures that Minnesota spirit.
Mariusz Kujawski, executive director of the St. Paul Art Collective, told Morning Edition the effort was born from a monthly sketch night program and food drive.
“Some people did make beautiful paintings for kids to hang in their homes. And some people didn't make a painting; they just made outlines. And I said, Well, this is like a coloring page. Why don't we make more of those coloring pages?” Kujawski explained. The “idea was to just create something welcoming and accessible for kids and families, something that reminds them of community being there, neighbors organizing.”
More than 100 local artists and students contributed pages to the coloring book, “Draw Together.” The images range from monarchs to a raccoon with birthday cakes, hearts and “love” written in several languages, and a family of loons with the words “You belong here” floating above.
There's a free PDF download available online, or paper copies are available at St. Paul art store Wet Paint and on Amazon, where it ranks at No. 1 as the new release in Children's Drawing Books as of Wednesday afternoon.
The book’s release comes on the cusp of the Spring St. Paul Art Crawl, which begins Friday and runs for three weekends.
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