Project: Painting a Mural that will create public dialogue, and inspire the community. Images can drive thought, and impact the community in which they are painted. The Rowlett Park Mural is about Motherhood, and how Fathers are missing from childrens lives and families in the community. Do you notice what is missing from the mural? Men. The mural shows how strong the women and children are, and should inspire young men to be good fathers.
Essential Questions: How can images impact, enhance, and eventually change the community in a positive way. How can art serve as a transformative tool in the communtiy and make a lasting impression? How can art allow communities to find their voice and identity.
Enduring Ideas: Understand that art is a transformative tool for both social and personal reasons. Integrate students and their artwork into the community.
Activities: Students will work out a design that will inpire or convey a message to the community. After choosing a topic, students will break up into teams. There will need to be rollers and mixers, fill-in artists, and line artists. Line artists work on getting the drawing on the surface, and then the fill-in artist paint inside the lines the color needed. When big areas need to be covered you uses rollers, and the same person who is mixing the paint can help roll with the fill-in artists. There will need to be supervisors assissting the process when needed, and to overlook the overall design presentation and proportion with the teacher. I suggest having at least two teachers as well if you can get a volunteer to help. After applying the paint you can spray on a sealer to help the longevity of the mural.
Activities continued: Students will first look at artists that have used murals to communcate and deliver messages to the community. After studying the artists, they will need to come up with a message they want to convey to the community. Students will then design an image that will convey the message to the public. The students will then be broken into teams and start the mural process. After the mural is painted, there should be an opportunity for the students to share it with the community with an "opening". This will be another chance for the students to sell their artwork with the community. I should allow another chance for social dialogue to be created, and provide the students with a voice in the community. After the opening of the mural the students should write a paper on how the mural affected them, and how they feel the community responded to the mural. Did the mural convey the message that the class wanted to say? How well did the mural bring about a social dialogue, and will it inspire people in the community? Artists and Resources are provided at the bottom of the page.
Assessment: How well did students work together? Did they understand the enduring ideas and principles of the project? How well did they work as a team, and how well did they preform the tasks assigned to them? Did they help in designing the mural, and did they help in coming up with a concept for the mural. Do they understand the importance of a social dialogue, and how a mural can accomplish the task of conveying a message to a neighborhood, community, and society? Did they explore artists that used murals as a voice to the community and for the community? How well did their paper illustrate the ideas and questions involved in the lesson?
Reflection: This project is important because it delivers a message to the whole community and those who don't even live in the area. People will drive by and be influenced by the mural, and hopefully become inspired to get involved in the community. Murals deliver when it comes to portraying a message to the community. The voice of the Rowlett Park Mural still lingers almost four years after its completion. I was able to be a part of Community Stepping Stones, and I can tell you that the mural was painted by the kids, and for the community. This can be achieved if you really put forth the effort, and Sulfer Spings a small suburb of Tampa still reaps the benefits of the murals. Almost all the funding for the arts was taken from Non Profit Organizations in Tampa, totaling in the $400,000 range. I can tell you that Community Stepping Stones was deeply effected by this, but because of the murals and community involvment that Stepping Stones does, they were awarded grants, and we able to continue the organization. So, these things do matter, and they can make a difference. I am a witness to how strong public community art is, and the impact it makes on peoples lives.
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