American Family Insurance and the Seattle Seahawks

Amanda Hashagen, Executive Director, Urban ArtWorks: Urban ArtWorks is a nonprofit in Seattle. Our mission is to engage youth and communities in the creation of public art that inspires connections and honors their voices. We've really been focused on trying to reduce the barriers to arts education and employment.

Eboni Wyatt, Program Manager, Urban ArtWorks: Having the partnership with the Free to Dream initiative by American Family Insurance, I thought that it was just a perfect marriage of Urban ArtWork's mission and values and what they're trying to do. When I heard that we were gonna be doing a piece for the Seahawks, I was like, "Whoa".

Amanda Hashagen, Executive Director, Urban ArtWorks: Being inside the stadium is a pretty awesome opportunity.

Felipe Perez, Teaching Artist, Urban ArtWorks: Get that square brush and do the lettering first.

Natalia Sotelo, Program Assistant, Urban ArtWorks: The inspiration for this piece came from Tyler Lockett gave us a poem, and we read over the poem, and tried to get inspired off of his words, which were fly high and just try to dream big.

Felipe Perez, Teaching Artist, Urban ArtWorks: We read the poem out loud and the apprentices circled words that resonated with them. And then they also shared stories. From there, we started drawing. Each apprentice had their silhouette projected on the wall and traced. That was just a great way for them to really fill up the idea of Free to Dream.

Matthew, Urban ArtWorks Apprentice: I'd say that the message of this piece is really important, because I think it shows the past situations that we were born into shouldn't dictate what we get to do with ourselves.

Amanda Hashagen, Executive Director, Urban ArtWorks:I am just so proud of our young people for stepping up and creating something so beautiful.

Felipe Perez, Teaching Artist, Urban ArtWorks: It wasn't easy, but we adapted, and we did it. Part of achieving goals and dreams is the setbacks and how you deal with that.

Amanda Hashagen, Executive Director, Urban ArtWorks: It's a metaphor for other areas of your life.

Eboni Wyatt, Program Manager, Urban ArtWorks: This piece was a good message that everyone has the right to dream and put some of those systems in place, so everyone not only has that right, but can accomplish their dreams as well.

Amanda Hashagen, Executive Director, Urban ArtWorks: Being free to dream is what's gonna help our community and our world build better for one another.

Felipe Perez, Teaching Artist, Urban ArtWorks: The dream might not always be exactly how you expected, but that's the beauty.

Nobel, Urban ArtWorks Apprentice: I can't wait until people see it. I feel like I'm to keep doing this in the future.

Rocio, Urban ArtWorks Apprentice: Art, I see it as something that's gonna embrace me. In a way it's like love for me.

Tyler Lockett: Spoken word? You can have your own flow.

And you ain't got to be rich just to be happy, you can still be broke.

If you lost but still alive, you can still find hope. But don't live to survive, you've got to learn how to fly.

You've got to spread your wings.

Go out there and chase your dreams. The higher that you fly new perspective you're going to see. And the perspective that you see, it's right there for you to reach.

Don't get caught up in the people who can't see the same thing.

Just fly high.