Uplifting Every Shelter with Artist Dana Tanamachi for World Refugee Day
To mark World Refugee Day, Every Shelter partnered with Colossal Media to bring a hand-painted mural to Brooklyn with art by NY’s Dana Tanamachi.
Started in 2018, Every Shelter operates globally responding to humanitarian crises and displacement events with a unique approach.
Every Shelter designs shelter solutions for refugees and displaced families living in settlements and camps for a long-term duration. With over 100 million displaced people in the world and the average duration of a displacement lasting 20 years, Every Shelter’s work is life-saving.
“We believe in a future where refugees are treated again as customers with agency and choice, not just reacting to the shifting world around them, but able to actively participate in meaningful ways to improve their lives as they see fit. We can’t thank Dana, and the artists and team at Colossal enough for helping us share our work in this awesome way.”
The Houston-based nonprofit invests in helping displaced families and communities through Shelter Depot, a hardware store focused on providing home improvement products and DIY materials to help families build quality homes that last, instead of depending on temporary, short-term products, common in the humanitarian industry.
In the spirit of out-of-home, Every Shelter repurposes materials, including used billboard vinyls, to sustainably produce its Emergency Tarps and easy-to-assemble Emergency Floor tiles – made available in its Shelter Depots in refugee communities.
The concept behind the mural artwork, designed by Dana Tanamachi, is “flourishing with the right tools”. The blossoming flowers are made up of tools available at Every Shelter’s Shelter Depot hardware stores while the leaves are stylized hands symbolizing agency, ownership, and community.
“We were honored to paint this meaningful mural and for getting to replicate artwork from a fellow NY-based creative – right in our Brooklyn backyard. Our team has been so inspired by Every Shelter’s commitment to sustainable housing solutions for people navigating crisis and displacement, so we were thrilled to use this mural as a compelling storytelling medium for Every Shelter and its mission.”
A special thanks to the Colossal team members who worked on this project: Mike Garcia, Jason Jarosz, Mike Lee, Vanessa Kreytak, Jewel Addy, Lara Burns, Katie Danforth, Lumi Jewell, Keren Hasson, Mallory Smith, Samara Nelson, Hartwick Hanson, Jon Airis, Nicholas Cummins, John Samels, Thorsten Roth and all the members of our production team and the Start Today committee.
Thank you to our partners at Every Shelter for making this project possible, including Every Shelter Co-Founder & CEO, Scott Austin Key, Chief of Staff, Austin Hermann, and Director of Development, Megan Mark.
