Youme Landowne and her New School students worked with the
Nutrition and Fitness students at TRUCE (The Renaissance University for Community Education) in Harlem. Youme and her students generated imagery with the Nutrition and Fitness students for a mural about urban birds' nutrition and fitness.

                                              Photo by Robert Barker, University Photography

Youme Landowne is partnered with Brooklyn-based Groundswell. Established in 1996, Groundswell partners professional artists with  young men and women to create high-quailty murals in underrepresented communities. Learn more about Ground swell at  www.groundswellmural.org

On May 12th, at Dana Discovery Center, the public was invited to join in completing the mural which travelled for educational and enjoyment purposes and now has a permanent home at TRUCE Fitness and Nutrition Center.

TRUCE is a comprehensive youth development program for 200 adolescents between the ages of 12-19 that fosters academic growth and career readiness through the innovative use of the arts, media literacy, health and multimedia technology.

Each year TRUCE helps seniors graduate on time and get admitted to college. The majority of TRUCE seniors pass the high school Regents exam. TRUCE outperforms the NYC averages of graduation rate and entrance into a 2 or 4-year college. In 2004, all 16 of TRUCE's high-school seniors applied to college and 13 were accepted to schools, including Yale, Harvard, Vassar,

Youme painting with students in the Bronx

Bowdoin, Penn State, SUNY Albany, SUNY Purchase, Morhouse and Morgan State. Through a variety of hands-on, youth directed projects, young people participate in creating an award-winning cable TV program ("The Real Deal") that features poetry, video dramas and documentaries; creating community murals and gardens; publishing a quarterly newspaper (Harlem Overheard); and receiving academic support with an intensive college preparatory approach (The Insight Center).

"The Real Deal" has produced numerous award-winning videos including two that were featured at the Sundance Film Festival and one that was featured at the Whitney Museum.

TRUCE Fitness & Nutrition Center

Conceived by community youth to promote health and wellness in their neighborhood, TFNC has been recruiting middle and high school students to play a role in developing the center and programming. Youth Managers provide weekly presentations (Motivation Mondays) at the TFNC that are open to the general public and address health related issues that are known to have an impact on the residents of the Harlem Children's Zone.

Truce Fitness and Nutrition Center provides free services to Harlem residents, which includes martial arts, fitness and nutrition training and assessment, dance and aerobics. In addition, their goals are to promote awareness of such issues as sexually transmitted diseases, smoking, substance abuse, and violence.