There was a time not so long ago when people applying paint to the walls of an alleyway or building were seen as vandals who were named and shamed for their efforts. Classes of high school English students would write persuasive texts about the age-old topic of ‘art versus graffiti’, with teachers sighing in unison as they braced themselves to read enthusiastic paragraphs about the virtues of art work on drab city walls or the perils of vandalism and tagging. We would talk to life skills and transition students about why it is important to keep local communities clean and tidy and never draw or paint on walls at school or in the local streets.
Love that artwork!
Now flash forward a year or so, and the enthusiasm for all things street art related sees large murals decorating many inner city laneways and large commercial sites, attracting visitors who spend time exploring the work and taking photos. New business models have grown and thrived around these artworks, with artist - student collaborations creating themed and topical murals as part of a movement towards community based art. Once unknown street artists who operated at the fringes of the art world have now hit the mainstream, with stunning examples now easily found in major cities and regional and suburban streets. Artists such as Banksy have added new licence to create works which contain a message or reflect a time and place of significance for the local community. Street art resonates with young people, as it reflects their thirst for topics which are edgy and unique, capturing ideas and expressions to which they can relate.
If you are looking for some novel excursion ideas for your students, incorporating street art into the mix can be a great way of fostering local connections and establishing a firm interest in visual communication and creative expression.
Artworks can celebrate local communities and their people.
Check out these funky new art based ideas to get you started:
Step back in time
Teach life skills and transition students about the history behind graffiti, with its origins back in the spontaneous inscriptions and drawings carved into the walls of the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Use research skills to explore the ever growing digital database of graffiti records that are being mapped and recorded for online access anywhere in the world. Learn about the layers of drawings on the walls of medieval churches in England, and the inscribed and dated text on the walls of the Dayu cave, in the Qinling mountains of central China which document the impact of droughts and reduced rainfall over centuries.
Take a walk
Find your nearest street art location and go on a tour of the works as a community based instruction activity. This a great activity for students in life skills classes, as they can use maps, street names and directions to find their way from one artwork to the next. Many street art areas have multiple art works close together, so it is easy to find a map and visit a number of sites during a single excursion. There are street artworks in Melbourne’s CBD (Hossier Lane) as well as outer suburban Frankston. The regional towns of Bendigo and Benalla have their own collections, while Newtown in inner city Sydney is also famous for its street art display. There are festivals held annually to celebrate street art, with Brisbane city hosting a festival in May and Tasmania’s Vibrance Festival being held in February.
Further afield
Have you ever heard of silo art? Many areas of regional and rural Australia now feature massive works which showcase local identities and stories, with the work of artists covering the surface of previously drab silos and water towers. If your school is planning a camp to a location in a regional area, consider adding a side trip to visit one of these impressive murals. It is a great addition that gives a unique reflection on identity and place marking in local communities across the country.
Silo art is an impressive feature in many outback towns.
Map making
When you visit an area where there is street art on display, you will often notice that where one piece is created, many more soon appear. Streets and laneways link together and there is a natural flow that allows visitors to wander from one piece to the next. Have your students create a print or digital map to accompany the artworks they visit in an area, as a practical application of life skills math and geography skills related to simple grid referencing, direction and orientation. Maps can be hand drawn or added to an existing print map, or ask students to bring along a smart phone to track their journey. Measure distances in steps and time taken rather than formal measurements for a unique twist on life skills math.
Make a map to show where artworks are found in your local community.
Add a touch of multi-media
Adding audio and video elements to an excursion is a handy option that will capture attention and keep the engagement levels high. Ask students to produce a short video introduction to the street art they have seen or add audio descriptions that they record on their phone as they walk along. Capturing these reflections in
a raw state rather than having them spend time editing and refining their work can make the observations more real and reflective of thoughts and feelings when they first see an artwork. Later, they can overlay audio or video files with a digital map using hot spots to mark the location or adding co-ordinates to show where each artwork was found. Use music to accompany street art experiences, by giving students permission to explore artworks while listening to their own music choices.
Local links
Linking with a street art project in your local community encourages important employability skills such as collaboration, teamwork, problem solving and communication. It teaches students to listen to others in a group, work together to find solution to challenges and to foster longer term working relationships with the artistic community in your area. If your life skills or transition students are ready for something new and adventurous, why not explore street art opportunities in your local community? You can build a complete learning package which begins with classroom based research, includes letters, emails, mapping and budgets, and ends with planning a celebration of a completed work task – which will all look fabulous on a resume in the future!
Health note
You may come across artworks which are being painted or have only recently been completed by their artists when you are out exploring street art in your community. Some life skills students may be affected by the paint fumes so consider this as a risk factor in your excursion planning, and make sure you manage the risk appropriately, in line with the expectations of your learning setting and the needs of your student group.
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