A student led program, where art can help navigate life's issues
28% of Bay Area high schoolers are chronically sad.
The hardest thing you'll ever do is learning to be the real you.
That gap between needing help and asking for it is exactly where this campaign lives. Student-designed murals with embedded QR codes give any teenager a private, instant path to real mental health resources.
The Art of Being You is a youth mental health campaign that installs student-designed murals directly on high school campuses. Students design the art. Students own the message. And when their peers walk past that mural every day, they see something made by someone like them that says: your mental health matters, you're not alone, and help is right here.
This is not an arts program competing for arts funding. It is a mental health intervention delivered through the arts, peer-created, campus-based, and available to anyone who walks by.
Link regular arts engagement to better adolescent mental health
A 2025 systematic review of 28 studies found regular engagement with arts and creative activities was linked to improved adolescent mental health and wellbeing, with especially strong evidence for reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms.
Don't have the words to ask for help
When language fails, art speaks. A mural doesn't require a teenager to find the words, make an appointment, or walk through a door with a sign that says "counselor." It just requires them to look up.
Reduction in depressive symptoms in youth through art-based intervention
A 2025 meta-analysis of controlled trials found art therapy produces significant reductions in depression among children and adolescents, comparable to CBT outcomes at 3-month follow-up.
Youth artists work with 333 Arts facilitators to develop original mural concepts rooted in their own experiences, identities, and vision for their school community.
Designs are shared with counselors and school staff so that more awareness about the program is gained.
Students paint the final mural on campus with professional support from 333 Arts. The process is as important as the product, this is where the real learning happens.
Each mural includes a QR code linking to curated mental health resources and local programs, turning public art into a daily touchpoint for wellness.
"Stop thinking about artworks as objects and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences."
- Beautifies a space students walk through every day
- Builds connection amongst peers
- Normalizes mental health awareness and well-being
- Quietly points toward help that exists for those in need
Students are not just making art. They are making a positive impact.
Student-designed artwork, every mural concept comes from the students whose campus it will live on.
Mental health resources available via QR code.
Average cost per school campus, a permanent mental health resource that reaches thousands of students daily.
GET INVOLVED
Ready to bring The Art of Being You to your campus?
Whether you are a school administrator, district partner, community funder, or parent - there is a role for you in making this campaign happen.