♪♪ This is what I tell the students actually -- I tell them that Youth Art Team isn't something you go to, it's you.

♪♪ Heidi Fuchtman: How did this start?

There were some people getting to know kids in the neighborhood, so they were spending time in the summer with them and they noticed how creative they were with chalk on the sidewalks and things like that.

So they pulled together some people to try to figure out how they could stay connected with them in the fall when they all went back to school and thought it would be cool to do something with art.

♪♪ Heidi: The first project we had them interview people from the community.

So from the very beginning they were engaging with adults and listening to their stories and then creating artwork inspired by those stories.

♪♪ Brooklyn: The freedom one, it's the one over there.

I really liked it because I could really get all my emotions out on that one.

Sam: It's about the emotions of the civil rights and it's not just a picture of what happened, it's throughout art.

♪♪ Heidi: The Our Freedom Story Mural and the 4th Street Bridge murals are by the Cedar River, which is a place that has historically divided this community by race.

♪♪ Aerz: I interviewed my grandmother for Waterloo's history.

We asked her questions about how Waterloo was back in the '60s and the '50s.

She told us about how the lumberyard was caught on fire during the Waterloo riots and she just watched it from her grandmother's porch.

Yeah, that's crazy.

♪♪ Viviana: So, then when I actually heard the stories, felt the emotions, I was able to convey my emotions onto paper with a guess of how they would feel.

Sam: They pieced them all together and then we started painting.

♪♪ Sam: It looks like a whole bunch of doodles put together to make this beautiful art piece to show all the emotions.

♪♪ Janea: So this is the spot that I did and kind of there's like a light inside all of us and it's cracking open.

♪♪ Janea: It just holds a lot of ideas from many different people.

It's like a snapshot of what people thought in the moment, but then it could be interpreted many different ways.

Emma: Whenever I'm in this part of town and I see the mural it's like a surprise every time just how amazing it is and how cool it is that we could accomplish this.

♪♪ ♪♪ Heidi: The 4th Street Bridge is a real iconic Waterloo structure that is real symbolic of connecting both sides of the river, connecting people.

Viviana: When I was younger I did a lot of just circles and stuff because I really enjoyed drawing circles and stuff.

I don't know why.

Funny story, though, they didn't know which way to put it.

They didn't know to flip it over or not.

♪♪ Aerz: Every time I see a piece of art I look at it so closely, I look at the detail, the color, I see if there's any texture.

This is the peacock.

This is my very first project.

Since we were really little we couldn't go up there so we painted the bricks down here.

So the spots of the peacock in the feathers are the silhouettes of the painters.

And so mine is right there.

♪♪ Aerz: That's mine.

♪♪ Aerz: I don't think I would have been able to say to myself, I could paint a peacock on the side of a building.

♪♪ ♪♪ Heidi: I think it's scary to put your work out in the world, no matter what it is, whether it's art or anything else.

But they get to do it at a young age and with a team.

So we're taking these huge risks together and putting things out into the world, but with a supportive community.

♪♪ Aerz: We have brought color to Waterloo.

So yeah, I do feel like we're a part of the community.

Ahmad: We have taken on a lot of planning, we have taken on a lot of projects of our own, kind of taking the younger kids under our wing teaching them not only how to be leaders but learning how to be leaders in the process.

♪♪ Lonny: If you just sit down and actually think about something, like something that changed the world, and you make a piece and if it's big enough or if it gets enough attention, you might actually be able to put an impact or at least a little dent in the world before you leave.

♪♪ Emma: In 50 years I want people to know how the Youth Art Team tried their best and always reflected through their artwork the beauty of the community and how even things that are really ugly can become messages of hope and stuff like that and that art is such a big part of that and kids are such a big part of that.

♪♪