« Creating Toronto’s First Ever Mud Graffiti Mural in Regent Park
This summer AFCY provides youth employment hours at Artscape’s Daniels Spectrum through 2013 Daniels Spectrum Outdoor Arts Program
TORONTO: July 10 – August 28, 2013 – Arts for Children and Youth (AFCY) is creating Toronto’s first ever Mud Graffiti Mural at Artscape’s Daniels Spectrum in Regent Park every Wednesday from 4:30-6:00pm. This event is part of the 2013 Daniels Spectrum Outdoor Arts Program and was made possible through the generous contribution of an Anonymous Donor to the Artscape Foundation.
This project offers opportunities for young people to research, discover and creatively act on local environmental issues that will improve their ecological literacy, further develop their sense of place, prompt collective and creative learning and engage them in zero footprint mural making practices. The youth participants will be working under the supervision of Rob Matejka (a professional muralist working with AFCY) and Nigel Martin (an emerging youth muralist working with AFCY).
The workshops will be set to encourage passersby to get involved. People visiting the farmers market (which operates every Wednesday) and the Spectrum will be encouraged to create a stencil or two and use the stencil(s) to collectively produce a beautiful outdoor community mud mural. Participants will use raw clay and natural dyes (such as turmeric, beets, tea) to colour the clay to produce coloured images. The market itself will serve as inspiration for the participants and their making of the stencil images. Our aim is to engage visitors to the area, the market to work alongside the youth participants.
« More and more, I feel there needs to be a shift, and focus towards using renewable resources in North America. It’s exciting to explore, and introduce to youth in the community the use of eco-conscious materials; with the already re-usable street art of stenciling, » says Nigel Martin (emerging muralist with AFCY).
Arts for Children and Youth (AFCY) is a registered charitable organization. We ally with high priority communities and empower marginalized children and youth by engaging them in hands-on, community and school-based arts education programs that respect existing cultural and community activity, resulting in participatory action and social awareness. »
-submitted by Tharmila Rajasingam, AFCY
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