As the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina unfolded from television screens, computer monitors, newspapers and radios during summer and September 2005, The University of the Arts responded with a genuine urgency in helping the victims. Dance Studies assistant professor Connie Michael spearheaded an initiative to rally her coworkers and students to design T-shirts for Katrina victims. They called it the "Design a T-shirt of Hope and Love" event.
Aspiring to spread a message of hope and love to those displaced by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, over 200 students bought and designed $3 t-shirt. Then they turned the shirts from white-to-bright via tie-dye, embroidery, stencil, stamp, patches, and air-brishing. This collaborative creative endeavour offered students the opportunity to expel and explore their post-Katrina emotions. After the shirts were transformed into wearable works of art, participants wrote letters of encouragement or poems to accompany them. Then, they donated the shirts to Katrina refugees living temporarily in the City of Brotherly Love.
