The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘Quality art supplies spark your creativity’
Architect raising funds to give kindergartners ‘Colors of the World’
MIDDLETOWN — A local architect and lifelong resident is raising money to purchase flesh-colored crayons soon to be released by Crayola, an art tool which enables users to create countless variations of eye and skin tones.
Lifelong resident and former Middletown planning and zoning commissioner Molly Salafia opened a GoFundMe account Friday with a goal of raising $200 to purchase 32-packs of the Colors of the World collection for $1.77 each. These are being sold exclusively at Walmart.
Within three days, it reached $260 donations, which will allow Salafia to buy enough supplies for kindergarteners in all eight of Middletown’s grammar schools, as well as those attending St. John Paul II School.
The colors will be available in July in a 24- and 32-count pack.
In the past, crayons would have names that Salafia termed “stereotypical.”
“Quality art supplies spark your creativity. I thought that was really important,” she said.
The 24-pack of crayons will come with a chart
showing how to blend colors. “They have better names. Just the colors, not like ‘Indian Red,’ which is outdated and offensive,” Salafia said.
Her son is 4. “I tried to explain race and skin color to my son. He doesn’t get it at all,” said Salafia, who attended school in the 1990s.
“My generation was raised to be color blind. I think that’s good and a very innocent way to look at it, but we have to look at it a little differently now, and not be color blind; be sensitive to differences,” she said.
She recalls having a “names can really hurt” rally about race and gender equality while younger, but it was taught differently. “‘We’re all the same, but a little
bit different,’ which is still true, but be conscientious of the differences,” is the new message.
The new Crayola box depicts four children of varied heritage and skin colors. A video for the product launch says diversity and inclusion are part of the company’s mission.
Middletown High School visual arts teacher Charlotte McCoid said her students are intrigued by having a wide variety of art supply colors.
“The interesting thing is how amazed everybody is with the color they actually match up with,,” said McCoid, who taught Salafia.
“It’s not uncommon for people of all ages to depict themselves as how they’d like to be seen,” McCoid said, such as with a different colored hair or hairstyle, and taller or shorter.
A year ago, when Salafia’s son was 3, he used a blue crayon to draw himself. “One day he might want to do a little bit more realism. One day, he might notice he’s not blue,” she said, with a laugh.
McCoid noted that, “when you actually use the Crayons, they can see the flesh-tone colors give them a much wider choice.”
Salafia took a drawing class through the recreation department as a youth. The prize was a package of Pantone colored pencils. She won, and still has the pencils to prove it.
“I shaved them down to nubs in college. When you have better supplies, you’re not inhibited by what you have,” Salafia said.
Initially, Salafia thought she was destined for a career in the law, although she had a creative streak. But being an attorney was not for her.
Salafia never learned the myriad of possible job paths an art degree could open up.
“I thought you grew up to be an artist. You paint murals. I didn’t have any idea what careers there are in art or product design,” Salafia said. “My parents were always supportive, but if you don’t know the arts field, you don’t know what you can do with it.”
A friend’s mother, the director of Wesleyan Potters at the time, gave Salafia a Wesleyan University student’s portfolio, which was headed for the trash. “I carried that all through high school, all through college,” she said.
Middletown Public Schools Chief of School Operations and Communication Marco Gaylord said the district will be distributing the crayon packs to families once they’re received.
Children were sent home with sketch pads, paper, paint sets, colored pencils and other art supplies when distance learning began in mid-March. Clay and other advanced supplies were distributed to secondary students.
Currently preorders for the crayons at Walmart are sold out, but packages should be available by September, Salafia said.
“People can identify with themselves in a box of 24 Crayons. That’s fantastic,” Victor Casale, CEO and cofounder of MOB Beauty, who is Crayola’s Global Skin Tone partner, said in a video promoting the new product.
“I think it’s appreciated skin colors can be found inside a crayon box,” McCoid said. “There’s no such color as white or black — we are all shades of in between. .”
For information, visit crayola.com/worldcolors.