In October 2019 Community Organizer Michael Bell traveled to the USA to attend seminars on public art. While here in the States, he visited New York City to meet Rodney Durso, founder and board chair of ArtBridge.
Rodney and Michael toured some of the ArtBridge’s then recent projects, including one of their largest on the Google building at West 16th St. in the West Chelsea district of Manhattan. During that tour and the meetings that followed, the two decided to look for a project to collaborate on in either New York or Cape Town.
In 2021 the two reconnected with the goal of collaborating on the PAINT project for Mitchell’s Plains township in Cape Town, South Africa. With leadership from Michael’s team and funding from ArtBridge, the two have pulled together a successful international public art project that works as a template for many more to come.
