Week 3: Murals and Street Art

This week we'll look at the different ways in which public art, such as street art and murals, have been used to try and convey messages about issues affecting our society today, whether that's climate change, environmentalism or equality and diversity. We'll have a look at the history of these art forms and at the example of the recent Black Lives Matter Mural Trail. Our activity for this week will be creating our own mural.

The Black Lives Matter Mural Trail was started last year by an artist called Wezi Mhura. Watch the video below from BBC Scotland to learn more about why she wanted to create the mural trail and to find out some more about the artists and their murals. Most of the examples in this video come from Edinburgh but in our sessions, this week we'll be looking at an example on the University of Stirling's campus.

Last week we talked about sculptures as being one of the oldest forms of public art but in fact murals are even older! Watch the video below from Matthew Jarron, Curator at the University of Dundee Museums to find out more about the history of murals. Are there any murals in the video which you particularly like? Why?

For this week's activity we'd like you to make a mural on a theme of your choosing! If you like, your whole group can work together on one theme - you can put some suggestions in your group's Team channel for this. But, as Wesi said in the video above, it's important that you choose a theme that's important to you so you can also do the activity individually if you prefer.

If you want your mural to have a political message you could choose an environmental theme like animals being made extinct, the overuse of plastic etc. You might want to think about a theme related to COVID-19 and the impact that's had on different sections of society including young people like you or about highlighting a culture which is underrepresented. But remember murals don't always have to be political, they can also just be for fun! You could make the mural about your favourite cartoon character (like one of the examples in Matthew's video), about your favourite video game, TV show etc., whatever you prefer. If you're struggling to think of a theme, just let us know in the Teams site and your mentor will help you.

Please fill in pp.20-24 of the log book as you do the activity. Thank you! (NB: the question which asks 'which tools are you going to use?' means are you going to use chalk, pencils or something else? We've suggested chalk in case you get the chance to do it outside but feel free to use any other medium you prefer!)