Founder & Muralist, Sarah Jayne Bleiweis, is a Kick Asana Yoga Artist & Educator. Her goal is to paint 100 Mermaids & Murals with At-Risk Youth Around World.
Empowering disadvantaged youth through collaborative public art projects, both locally and globally.
All children should have the opportunity to be able to contribute to their community; they should be able to experience the joy that comes from using art as a vehicle for positive change in their world, as well.
View our work: Click on a location below to see an image & more info about the mural painted there.
As of March 2019, Mermaids & Murals has completed 35% of our goal to paint 100 Murals around the world. Click here for a list of our projects.
Mermaids and Murals is dedicated to empowering at-risk youth through collaborative public art projects, both locally and globally. We connect disadvantaged youth with consistent mentors and role models through art programs emphasizing community development and their own positive futures.
In 2007, Sarah was working as an art teacher in Bethlehem, Palestinian Territories and witnessed the positive impact that mural-painting had on her students. From that moment, she knew that art held the key to something special when it came to empowering children to reach their fullest potential and give back to their communities, and thus the world.
In 2007, Sarah was working as an art teacher in Bethlehem, Palestinian Territories and witnessed the positive impact that mural-painting had on her students. From that moment, she knew that art held the key to something special when it came to empowering children to reach their fullest potential and give back to their communities, and thus the world.
Every child should have the opportunity to be able to contribute to their community and experience the joy that comes from utilizing art as a vehicle for positive change in their world. Here’s how we inspire change:
Art: I know how to paint like an artist
Science: I know why the ocean is important to protect
Community: I know how to add beauty to my world
How can I paint murals? How can I create beauty?
Why is it important to protect the environment?
How can I help my community be more happy and healthy?
How can I encourage them to protect the environment?
Learn painting skills
Learn about being more healthy
Beautify your community with a mural
Learn how and why protecting the environment is important to your community and family
By painting ocean murals,
I can add beauty to my world
As an artist,
I can make a difference in my community
Since a young age, Sarah Jayne had a fascination with the ocean and art, especially mermaids. As a kid, she would doodle them constantly in the margins of her school notebooks and on napkins–anywhere she could find.
Her love of mermaids continued into college, where she was a studio art major with a concentration in figurative painting of the human form, minus the fish tail. After graduating from the College of William and Mary, she ventured to the Middle East on what was supposed to be a summer trip. Much to her surprise, the trip culminated in her accepting her dream job as the first-ever art teacher at a school for orphaned children. She would later end up living in Bethlehem and working as an art teacher with what soon became her favorite nonprofit for life, SOS Children’s Villages.
The majority of her students in Bethlehem were children who were growing up in a nearby orphanage. When she started painting murals with them at the school, she noticed a huge transformation. They had a new sense of pride, confidence, and happiness. From that moment, Sarah Jayne knew that painting murals with children held the key to something special when it came to empowering them to reach their fullest potential and give back to their communities, and thus the world.
After her life-changing experience as an art teacher in Bethlehem, she went back to graduate school at Tufts University to pursue a Masters of Art in teaching. Since then, she has continued to paint murals with children from around the world. Sarah Jayne continues to visit her former art students in Bethlehem through her nonprofit The Mural Dream Team, where her goal is to paint 100 murals with at-risk children locally and globally. The majority of her murals are painted with children growing up in marginalized communities, through public schools and through SOS Children’s Villages around the world.
