Spotlight on Volunteer Anita Walsh: Artist & Designer
BY JOHANNA CONTRERAS
This month, we highlight a special member of our team: Anita Walsh, Artist in Residence at the Brooklyn Prospect Charter School and volunteer designer for Brooklyn Book Bodega.
Anita met Brooklyn Book Bodega Co-Founders, Rebecca and Seema, through volunteer work at Brooklyn Prospect Charter School. Over the years, Rebecca, Seema, and Anita have collaborated on projects at the school, many of them twining community, literacy, and art.
The three formed a bond while collaborating on a longstanding “fantasy travel” project at Brooklyn Prospect in which the school was transformed into another space and students “traveled” across the world. Alongside many other volunteers, Rebecca and Seema supported Anita and the staff as they transformed the school into a different location through artwork and design. They even organized a rolling library cart filled with books related to the unit of study. In the same vein, Seema also helped to spearhead a volunteer effort to send backpacks of books to students in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
After years of being active in community service in their children’s school, it seemed natural to Anita that Rebecca and Seema would start their own nonprofit, especially one related to literacy.
“When they came to me and said hey, we want to do this, it just felt like, oh, yeah--that makes perfect sense. You all have been doing service, and now you want to focus on getting books into the hands of kids. In a school system, that is absolutely the right thing to do,” said Anita during our interview.
After years of working together and witnessing their work ethic and dedication, Anita was eager to contribute to Rebecca and Seema’s new endeavor.
“Frankly they were helping me on a lot of projects, so when they started this, it was like ‘Okay, it’s a great time for me to help you. Because they have been so generous in the past, and because I knew they were so hard working, it was kind of like of course, yes! I’ll do whatever you need.”
Since the inception of Brooklyn Book Bodega, Anita has helped with various book giveaways, as well as designed the group’s logo, materials, events, and space.
Rebecca describes Anita as a visionary. “Anita’s brain is constantly whirring and thinking. She always has kids’ best interest at heart. She is the perfect blend of a teacher and an artist--she is inspiring to kids (and to the adults who have the opportunity to work with her). She is super creative and pushes us to think beyond what we could imagine.”
In designing the logo, the co-founders sat in Anita’s apartment and talked about their vision for Brooklyn Book Bodega. Anita took notes, captured important words, and drew sketches. The group discussed colors and agreed that the end product should have a hand-drawn look. The design process even led to a critical outcome beyond the logo. Through their conversations, they refined Brooklyn Book Bodega’s pillars, the words they use to boil down Brooklyn Book Bodega to its essential components: Community, Choice, Access, Re-use, Discovery, and Ownership.
The next collaboration for Anita and the team will be the design of Brooklyn Book Bodega’s new space. The group recently moved into a new space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Seema hopes to work with Anita to realize her visions for the space.
“It’s going to be about workflow and making sure our operations are even more efficient. Also we have been brainstorming how to design the volunteer work area to make it inviting and collaborative. Our volunteers are teachers, librarians, ordinary people, book people, people who just moved to BK, and many more. We want to create a workspace where people can interact safely because of COVID, but still have fun and have a good experience volunteering at Brooklyn Book Bodega.”
Many thanks to Anita for all her contributions! If you love the logo as much as we do, check out our new apparel, tote bags, and mugs here. Also, please sign up to volunteer with us at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to see Anita’s design work in action!