Maira Kalman’s MFAD first year New York Schlepping project “gave us the opportunity to break away from our technically driven habits and to get out and explore the city,” says Kathleen Fitzgerald.

The goal of the project was to have a collective group of boxes that were tied together through color, but individually spoke to each person and their experiences exploring NYC – without the distractions of technology or stress.

“It was surprising for us to discover what you find when you are more aware and in tune with the city, and most of us have yet to do that before this assignment,” Fitzgerald adds.

“We exchanged anonymous directions amongst each other and followed these each week around the city; discovering new places and gathering up our experiences with ephemera and photos. As the class developed, we decided to assign colors to each person to focus on, and in the end we each had a box that symbolized our discoveries.”

Here those box makers (from top to bottom): Jenny Rozbruch, Jin Sook Bae, Kathleen Fitzgerald, Makiko Higashi, Maryam Seifi, Samia Kallidis, Thai Thruong, Yeon Soo Kim.