At the start of the month, the long-abandoned Mansion Inn in downtown Sacramento was filled with almost twenty artists between the ages of 14 and 18. Throughout the day, the high schoolers injected new life into the 1950s era hotel – empty white walls became blank canvases that were slowly filled with colorful words and images.

“CRE8,” read one wall. “Dance is a language,” said another. In front of a bold graffiti “STRIVE,” two dancers twisted and turned their bodies across the plywood floor.

This display was only a sneak peek of what’s to come. This September, high school students will have the opportunity to leave their artistic fingerprints on each of the Mansion Inn’s 46 rooms before the hotel is renovated, thanks to an initiative called Tearing Walls Apart.

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