// Issue 46 - Community Art //
Our theme for the February 2024 is community arts.
This can be many different things but mostly community arts are participatory or collaborative art, as a form of artistic expression that involves and engages a community in its creation, execution, or appreciation. It goes beyond the traditional understanding of art as an individualistic and exclusive endeavour, instead emphasising inclusivity, collaboration, and a shared experience among community members.
Examples of community art projects include mural paintings created by residents, community-driven public installations, theatre productions involving local actors, and collaborative storytelling initiatives. Art and food gardens created using sustainable local produce, community meals and talks. Community artists serve as a powerful tool for building connections, fostering creativity, and creating a sense of shared identity and pride within a community. It emphasizes the belief that art can be a catalyst for positive social change and community development.
Artist: Phil Barton
Instagram: @PhilBxyz
Title: Day of Action to Remember Nature 4th November 2019, London
MEDIUM
Creative participation
DESCRIPTION
Primary school sustainability champions engage with art students during the second biennial Day of Action to Remember Nature curated by Phil Barton, whilst doing his Masters in Art & Science, in The Street at CSM - the venue used in 2015 by the late Gustav Metzger to call on all creatives to remember nature.
Artist: Jenna Fox
Instagram: @jennafoxartist
Description: I worked with a wonderful group of women in a women's refuge on a project to make creative, art and written journals. All of which were personal to them. The project had to be kept secret with none of their identity, their work or where they were located to be revealed. Their positivity was incredible and this is what has stayed with me. The home let me take some broken furniture from a skip outside and from this I made this piece, "Back bone" in praise of them.
Materials: Broken chairs from a women's refuge, scouring pads and wire.
Artist : Benoit Maubrey
Social Media: https://benoitmaubrey.com/arena-berlin/
Title: Speakers Arena
MEDIUM: recycled electronics, PA system: all 300 speakers are connected to microphone, Bluetooth receivers,
DESCRIPTION: A participative public sculpture made out of 320 connected loudspeakers that people can use to express themselves. The public, local artists and musicians can participate via a number of ways: -- by collecting loudspeakers and helping to install the sculpture. -- by calling either one of two telephone numbers to express themselves for 3 minutes. -- via Bluetooth they can relay songs and messages to the sculpture. -- via direct „line in“ they can connect their devices and instruments or speak directly through a microphone. -- via an “audio twitter” (to #speakersarena) their messages are automatically read out loud. Additionally the sculpture can be used as a PA system for events , DJs, and small concerts.
Check out the video here:
Artist: Joanna Dewfall
Instagram: @dewfallmosaic
Title: Salisbury Rail Station Mosaic Mural
MEDIUM
Mosaic - glass and porcelain
DESCRIPTION
Photo shows production workshop. A 3m x 1.8m Mosaic Mural set over 3 panels. A bird's eye view of Salisbury with it's network of rivers, railways and Cathedral. The design is by Joanna Dewfall after consultation with staff at the station. The mosaic was produced with the staff of South Western Railway and Network Rail working with the mosaic artist Joanna Dewfall. The project was based on Platform 3 at Salisbury Rail Station for 3 months. Staff booked into the workshops and once they were trained in the art they even came and did some work in the middle of the night. The mosaic was all made in reverse sections and then set into metal trays by the artist. At the time staff were stressed by strikes and weather events so the chance to switch off and create was very rewarding. The mosaic is installed on Platform 6.
Artist: Phil Barton
Instagram @PhilBxyz
Title: Day of Action to Remember Nature 4th November 2021, Launceston Town Square
MEDIUM
Creative participayion
DESCRIPTION
Coinciding with COP26 in Glasgow, Phil Barton convened a group of five local artists to jointly organise a day of action. Passers by - shoppers, residents, schoolchildren - helped complete a mural by adding nature to a landscape. Once completed, the artists rode a bicycle and walked over the work with tyres and boots dipped in black ink and showed the resultant work in the local public library.
Artist: Emily Joy
Instagram: @emilyjoyartist
Title: Even a Stopped Wheel (University of Gloucestershire)
MEDIUM
Participatory work - clay, rammed earth
DESCRIPTION
Working with the students and staff at the University of Gloucestershire, and the visiting public, two large participatory pieces were developed. Both examined blockage and movement, taking the idea of 'absurd labour' in which the collaboration and co-creation is more important than the work created. Both elements of this piece were physically engaging, inviting different levels of material manipulation depending on the participants' physical limitations and demanding differing levels of co-working. This work spanned four weeks and participants were invited to build, alter and finally take apart the work made in the space. As in much of Emily's collaborative or participatory works, hierarchies of facilitator/participant were challenged.
Artist: Emily Joy
Instagram: @emilyjoyartist
Reimagining Pluto
MEDIUM
Rammed earth, wood, clay
DESCRIPTION
Over two weeks, 200 participants were invited to view an image of a boat - a personal historical object linking to the artist's family - and imaginatively recreate it is clay, reimagining what the from of the boat could have looked like. Subsequently a large, 11 tonne rammed earth recreation of the boat was created, drawing upon the forms of the clay models, and involving many of the original participants in its creation. This pieces examines personal and public memory, opening up the personal to multiple re-tellings.
Artist: Karen Chard
Instagram: @karenchardartist
Title: Processing Your Grief Through Stitch
Medium: Medium Crazy Patchwork. Have you lost a loved one? Using your head, heart and hands and fabrics that hold meaning to you, you will create a unique wall hanging, capturing memories through the medium of stitch. Here is an example of a crazy patchwork.
Artist: Tamsin Grainger
Instagram: @tamsinshiatsu
Website: https://www.tamsingrainger.com/blog-all-posts/forest-bound walkingwithoutadonkey.com
Title: Forest Bound (Black Wood of Rannoch)
Description: Forest Bound (Autumn 2022 and Winter 2023) was a collaboration between Tamsin Grainger, lead artist; Juan Pablo Lobo-Guerrero from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology; and the Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council (ELREC). Written in Film documented the project. People from the Chinese, Syrian, Polish and Ukranian communities participated. In this photograph, the community group are walking along a path through the Black Wood of Rannoch, Scotland, one of the last remaining old Caledonian forests.
Artist: Luc van der Walt
Instagram: @flowers_for_africa
Title: Flowers for Soweto
MEDIUM
Acrylic mural
DESCRIPTION
This image captures the entire flowers for Soweto mural in a group photo of some of the people involved in a food garden project. The mural was actually painted by over 70 children from the surrounding community, who were attending school at the time this photo was taken.
Artist: Fred Fabre
Instagram: @drawlogia
Website: www.drawlogia.com
Title: Street Portraits Project. MEDIUM: oil sketch
DESCRIPTION
In late 2022, I launched a community-driven initiative, offering to paint portraits of anyone living on our street. Residents had the opportunity to purchase their portraits, with proceeds going to support ActionAid UK’s vital work. This project aimed to deepen connections within our neighborhood while contributing to a meaningful cause. The exhibition took place 7 months later raising hundreds of pounds given to charity.
Artist: Rochelle Shicoff
Instagram: http://shellyshicoff.weebly.com
Website: http://shellyshicoff.weebly.com
Title: Action: A History of Florence MEDIUM: Acrylic paint on cement
DESCRIPTION
A community mural depicting a history of Florence, (MA) following loosely Indigenous people (left) to contemporary activities (right).