By Michael Schwartz
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| Amphi youth presenting their mural design to the TPAC Public Art Design review Committee |
This past spring Tucson Arts Brigade facilitated a 14 week after school Mural Program at Woods Memorial Library, situated
in the Amphi neighborhood in midtown Tucson. The program for
middle and high school youth was requested by the local neighborhood
association as a way to build capacity, reduce crime and hopefully foster new
leadership. Amphi is one of the highest crime areas of our city, with 3.3% of
all crimes reported (Tucson Police Department crime statistics 2011). Amphi
also boasts the second highest amount of criminal tagging (criminal damage) and
the highest amount of juvenile violations overall. The focal point for much of
the violence is along Yavapai Road. So, to kick off a multi-year campaign to
beautify the street, and build community interaction it was decided this should
be the location for the first mural.
Today’s class was abuzz with excitement. Youth started
showing up early, eager to move forward with our project after receiving a
round of applause and unanimous approval from our local Tucson Pima Arts
Council (http://tucsonpimaartscouncil.org/) Public Art Design review Committee.
Since our mural is on the exterior of a County owned building, this is the
process used to obtain permission for public arts projects.
Our theme today is gesture. After looking at some slides of
gesture drawings and paintings we launched right into a journal assignment
where one student became the eyes, the other the hand, and we drew a simple
still life. This is a really fun and simple icebreaker assignment, and fits
well into a discussion about hand eye coordination, and the tension created
between the hand and eye as we create art.
Our next lesson included a series of timed gesture drawings.
We talked about why this was important, especially when creating a mural, since
we are using our entire body to paint. We also talked about the relationship of
gesture, intuitive drawing and the principles of design. Gesture drawing can
help us become tuned into our natural design sensibilities and reduces the time
for self-censorship. Finally we created a sustained gesture drawing. Each week
we will continue a 15 minute version of this drawing practice before resuming
work on the mural.
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| Hand Eye Coordination Ice Breaker |
Having finished our the mural design the painting has
started, but a number of recommendations came in from the community. We decided
that the tree with dancers and religious icons would become an indigenous tree,
our Palo Verde, and the symbols would include our state flower, bird and other
icons we would vote on in the next session.
Our goal was to
integrate these ideas into our design. We have been using a consensus based
decision making process which provides youth an opportunity to practice their
group-organizing skills. We selected two
facilitators: a “scribe” and a vibes watcher/time-keeper. From here I really
got to sit back. I turned my curriculum over to the facilitators while guiding
the process as needed. This happens to be an exceptionally smart group of kids
so for the better part of the next hour I was a participant. We played a game
called 7-Up, you might know it - where we put our heads down and voted thumbs
up or down, and the youth all had so much to say, scribbling notes while
pinching their lips and eagerly waiting for their turn to talk.
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| Talking about our first gesture drawings. |
The time-keeper noted we had 15 minutes left in class. The
facilitators closed the meeting and read our reflection assignment, to write a
one-page description of the mural including the changes we had voted on so far.
The scribes agreed to assemble and edit the writings into a single mural
description.
As you can imagine, we were all excited for next week’s
class!
The final session was on May 30, 2013, and still new kids were coming to paint. Work in the neighborhood continues, with a mural unveiling, clean ups, tree plantings, gardens and lots more ideas being discussed!
** This project is made possible in part by a grant from the
Tucson Pima Arts Council IV P.L.A.C.E. Initiative grant funded by The Open
Society Institute, Pima County and the Friends of the Tucson Arts Brigade, Thank You! **
A version of this article also appeared on the Teaching Artist Journals' TAJ/AltSPACE
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