Advise or comment on this Collective
Collaborators
- Mrs Murals
- Pollenize CIC
- Art & Energy CIC
- Clean Our Patch CIC
Collective’s aims and ideas
Introduction
In a bid to bring art to Chaddlewood’s subways and promote the importance of protecting nature, Mrs Murals has teamed up with:
• Pollenize, a community interest company aimed at protecting bees & pollenators,.
• Clean Our Patch a popular community interest company passionate about keeping our local community free from litter,
• Art and Energy, an art collective that’s delivering engaging and thought provoking art & environmental school sessions.
The background
• Chaddlewood has 6 well used underpasses at 5 locations.
• Historically, they have suffered from unauthorised graffiti and subject to some antisocial behavior which is the source of many complaints.
• Typically the subways have been white washed on an infrequent basis to maintain the aesthetics, but these are soon covered with graffiti, tags and dirt.
• White washing walls creates a ‘blank canvass’ for unwanted graffiti, which no one wants to see.
This community lead project will help:
• Engage local schools to promote art and citizenship
• Brighten up often dark and dreary subways
• Reduce the fear of crime and promote walking
• Promote environmental awareness, community cohesion, health and wellbeing through art.
• Lower the cost of ongoing subway maintenance for the council, so some of this money can be used to fund & maintain the art.
• Provide a space for art inspired by local schools created at our art and education sessions planned for Autumn 21
A full project brief including subway art designs has been produced which includes art stencils from Pollenize. They can be viewed at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/chaddlewood-subways-art-project
The designs at the Glen Road & Westfield subway will finalised with the help of pupils at:
• Glen Park Primary School
• Chaddlewood Primary School
This project plans to include a schools based engagement activity during the autumn term which will support curriculum based learning focused on how environments can change as a result of human actions, such as littering. Workshop sessions will be designed to make pupils think about how we affect nature & how we can protect it. An interactive and creative session designed in collaboration with teachers will give pupils the opportunity to present their thoughts and ideas though art which will inform the designs at the Glen Road & Westfield subway.
Children will be able to say ‘ I did that!’ and ‘I’m helping nature, by not littering’
So, what will the funding cover?
The funding will pay for:
• The time that local artists commit to this project, supporting our local artists through a difficult period.
• All art materials such as paint, brushes and cleaning materials
• Scaffolding and platforms
• Insurances
• The provision of workshops in local schools.
• Some ongoing maintenance of art works, if there is sufficient funds.
When will the project start?
We plan to start the project in August 21 and complete all six subways by the summer 2022, subject to weather conditions.
How will they work together to achieve this?
All our POP members are active in the Plymouth community, so it makes sense for them to combine their efforts to tackle issues which are at the core of their individual mission statements – to protect the environment and promote community cohesion through art, education and action.
This project uniquely combines to tackle issues such as unwanted graffiti & community safety while promoting the protection of wildlife, such as pollinators. The proposed educational provision will help deepen young people’s connection to nature and the art will leave a lasting reminder of why it is important for all of us to protect nature. With larger suburban gardens in Chaddlewood and an abundance of public green space there are greater opportunities to improve the way we manage nature at home and in the community, but that can only be achieved with public support.
Mrs Murals is passionate about her local & wider community and about protecting wildlife. She is more recently noted for her street art in Hooe, Plymouth, involving the local school Hooe Primary Academy. Research suggests that painting multi-coloured designs or murals on surfaces will discourage graffiti, since tagging is more difficult. Such mural projects, especially when they involve local artists and high school students, have solved many graffiti problems. Nothing is guaranteed of course, but the aim is to help prevent unwanted antisocial graffiti at the same time as working with schools and local businesses to educate about littering and protecting the environment.
Pollenize CIC have successfully launch a campaign called ‘Seeds of Schools’ using the City’s Change Fund. The project aims to provide every pupil with a seed pack they can use to help re-wild the city.
Clean Our Patch CIC is an active community litter picking group which operates city wide and has a strong presence in Plympton, Chaddlewood. The project will see the promotion of litter picking and community engagement.
Art and Energy will provide an educational workshop session in schools which starts with telling the story of Marley the Moth and ends with a creative session designed to produce art works from children that will go on to inform the subway art.
Members of the collective are already individually active in each other’s groups as patrons, ambassador or volunteers, so there is already a collaborative framework to build on.
Collective members will provide fun, engaging and educational school based sessions to pupils aged between 4-10 years old. A broader activity inviting teenagers already engaged in graffiti is planned, with outputs from all the schools based activities informing the art designs in at least one of the subways. We have made contact with the Youth Centre based at the Rees Centre, Plympton and Plymouth City Council’s Youth Worker.
This project aims to support the aims and objectives of these community groups to reinforce the message through art and education. Literally cross pollenating ideas and action!
Where possible we will investigate lessons learned from other projects, such as the Art Project at Weston Mill school.
During the first round, POP members were asked to advise you. Tell us what happened. What are your reflections? Have you gained new insight? New partners?
The session helped the team pause to consider a number of key points, mainly:
• How we engage with older children of secondary school age. It was suggested that we contact the Rees Centre, Plympton and the council’s youth worker. Since the feedback session we have established a link with the Rees centre’s youth group worker and will make contact with PCC.
• A similar art project in Western Mill engaged with children to bring art to their playground. It would be useful to see how any art sessions were run.
• Other artists have approached the collective since launching our campaign. The addition of new artists into the project needs to be carefully managed to avoid any potential artistic conflict and keep the school / young persons engagement work on track.
• Adjusting the timescale for the completion of the project.
• How we will manage POP and other funding contributions. To be decided by the collective prior to the project commencing. The option to manage all funding through open collective will be strongly considered.
