SEATTLE — When the pandemic shut down businesses and forced most of us to stay home Galen Driver saw his artist friends suffering.
Driver, who grew up in Seattle, also heard about issues with online school, and the lack of access to art supplies, especially for students from low-income families.
His light bulb moment came when he had the idea to connect the artists with a need for continued arts education, especially for students at Title I schools, who might not have access to resources when they are not physically at school.
Stay Inside the Lines Seattle was born out of the canvas culture that has emerged from the coronavirus pandemic — local artists painting murals on boarded-up businesses and creating light and hope for better days to come.
“I reached out to some artists and asked them if they wanted to contribute some work to a coloring book," Driver said. "Everybody loved it and started introducing me to other artists.”
Driver posted the printable coloring pages online for free and kids have been downloading and coloring them for months. Dozens of notable local artists are involved and the collection is growing by the week.
Recently Driver decided to take it a step further and contacted local non-profit ArtsEd Washington. Together they created a new fund that will support arts education for low-income students.
You can find and print free pages at www.StayInsideTheLines.co. On the website, people can also pre-order a hard copy of the coloring book featuring more new designs.
ArtsEd and Stay Inside The Lines Seattle will donate one coloring book for every one sold and 100% of the profits will go directly to the fund providing art supplies for Title I public schools.
Driver is already working on his next project with Vivid Matter Collective who created the Black Lives Matter street mural on Capitol Hill.
“I’ve turned each letter into a coloring page and will turn that into a coloring book.”