ATLANTA — It was the pop of color across the park that first caught Joe Freeman's eye.
"From M.L.K I noticed the colors, the brightness," Freeman said as he walked across Atlanta's Mozley Park with his son. "We had been by this court a couple of times, and it wasn't inviting for us to come and play. But this court now, with the colors and the meaning behind it, it changes the narrative."
And that's the hope of Arelious Cooper, who championed the basketball court's renovation.
"One of the biggest things you see when you transform the community through art is people walk with their chest a little bit higher," Cooper, co-founder of Art in the Paint, said.
The former pro basketball player and Atlanta native knows what a can of paint can do for a community. Art in the Paint resurfaces and renovates neighborhood basketball courts, teaming up with local artists and groups like SCAD Serve for the transformation.
"Art elevates," Dean Balls, senior executive director of Design for Good for Savannah College of Art and Design, explained. "We know the power of the design is going to positively influence them, and they will in turn positively influence others."
Each court design is also customized with the neighborhood in mind, artist Carla Contreras explained.
"I wanted to actually call the attention of people so they come and take care of this space and use it more through the energy of color," Contreras said. As a result, her mural features bright and cheerful organic colors and patterns inspired by African print designs and Kente cloth symbolism featuring:
- Purple—associated with femininity, healing, and earth
- Yellow—royalty, wealth, holy
- White—purity, healing
- Blue—peace, harmony, love
- The overall composition conveys harmony with nature, renewal, and thriving
- The yellow flower element of the mural represents a lemon slice (related to the Mozley Park logo and Mozley Park’s history below) and also the Kente symbol “ANANSE NTONTAN” meaning wisdom and creativity.
The end result is beautiful but according to Cooper, it's not just about basketball.
Rather, "the basketball is the carrot," he explained.
While Art in the Paint focuses on renovating basketball courts, the group's mission also focuses bringing valuable programming and resources to the community through clinics and games.
"During the pandemic, we were able to give out food on basketball courts, we registered over a thousand voters, because everybody knows where the basketball court is," Cooper explained
He sums up the concept as the court becoming a "community center without walls," a chance to re-rebuild purpose from the asphalt up. The group has refurbished more than 30 courts in four countries to date.
"Basketball courts don't help people, people help people," Cooper added. "But the basketball court will get the people there, and that's our main focus."
Learn more about Art in the Paint's work here.