How everything started.
It is a wonderful sunny day today, the 3rd of August, in the city of Lund.
We gathered at Polhemskolan, one of the many municipal schools in town, still empty because of summer break.
We have rented the school's visual art room for the 2 weeks we have planned our art activities. I as workshop leader/coordinator and Katarina as
researcher came early in the morning and prepared the room.
Ulrika .Anzén who works at Lund municipality welcoming young immigrants and helped the project with the recruiting joined oss as well.
We opened a huge amount of boxes containing spray paint, rolled down a big screen, and started up a projector to show a power-point ad after a while joined the street artist Johan Holmqvist.
Johan was invited by Ulrika .Anzén (who works at Lund municipality welcoming young immigrants) to lead the graffiti workshop to give the participant the best professional experience. Is it very important to offer a high-quality workshop! An inclusive pedagogical approach requires experience and professionality.
At 10 o'clock the art room was full! 22 young girls (today were only girls) were sitting eager to start!
Here are all steps!
1) I introduced the 2 weeks workshop using a power-point. It is very important that the participant feels safe by knowing exactly what we are going to spend our time together!
Each day of the week (excluding Sunday) had this structure:
- start at 10 o'clock, in the art room and visit museums/city places. Getting inspired!
- noon, lunch at the school canteen
- 13 o'clock back to the art room. Create!
- 15. break with cake break offered by the project.
2) Johan introduced the graffiti section.
3) After two hours of brainstorming motifs, the brave group of participants walked downtown to paint two walls in the city center. Just two of the participants had spray-painted before but there was no hesitation and everyone painted, repainted, and perfected their ideas. Lots of people stopped to watch us!
Suggestions for a graffiti workshop.
A strong suggestion if you are thinking to start a graffiti workshop activity is to invite an expert street artist who also has pedagogical experience working with inclusion.
Contact the municipality and ask for permits for a place downtown! We have asked LKF (the municipality organization that regulates all matters about buildings), and have got the formal permits to use a wall in a very central point, for one month. The focus of this section is to increase the feeling of belonging by using a place in town which is as visible as possible. The feeling to have the possibility to change the public space is a strong factor that increases the feeling of belonging to a place.
Try to have a plan B in case of rain!
Be sure to buy tools and supplies enough for all participants.
Count at least 6 spray cans for each, 3 primary colors, black, and white plus one other you like. Don't forget gloves!
Plan at least 6 hours painting time and breaks in the middle. We planned the graffiti workshop divided in 3 sections:
Brainstorming
day one for first approach with the spray technique.
second day for refining.
It was a great experience which ended with an article in the regional newspaper!
Click on the lind below:
Have a great graffiti experience!
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