14/7/2011 - We're about participation, not demonstrations. School mural workshop

Here at Graff Workshop, we seem to be heading down the education route, and we're loving it. Some Graffiti companies have gone for the private events market, some for the corporate and commission market, but we're all about education and young people.

As you can see in the title, our workshops are about participation; we don't send you an artist who paints the wall from start to finish and lets the kids watch, we send an artist who acts as a catalyst for the young people to form their own designs and idea. The artist will then show the young people how to use a spray can and give help and advice when needed.


This workshop was at a primary school in Derby. The kids in the final year were leaving and the walls in the playground needed a re-vamp so they got to leave their mark on the school before they left. They were split into five random groups of six students and were tasked with making a design relating to the school and things they had been doing recently. The themes were Art, Maths, Science, Space and Music.

Each team came up with great designs, and particular praise must go to the girl who painted the grand piano before our artist even had a chance to help her!

Graff Workshop knows how important it is for the students to have painted the wall themselves but also for the school to have a good mural on display. So our artist stayed back for half an hour to tidy up the edges, and this is how we do our workshops....oh and did we mention it was a hilarious day with a really funny group of kids.