UNITED PAINTING ACADEMY - ASK US ANYTHING - JENNIFER HIGA HAS SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PHILLY PAINTING PROJECT
UNITED PAINTING ACADEMY - ASK US ANYTHING
JENNIFER HIGA HAS SOME QUESTIONS ON THE PHILLY PAINTING PROJECT
In this episode of the United Painting Academy’s ‘Ask Us Anything’. Jennifer Higa – who studies in Philadelphia – has some specific questions on the Philly Painting Project. If you have any questions of your own, please mail them tio info@unitedpaintingproject.com
To get some more answers on Jennifers question, we advise you to watch the following two videos which were shot during the 2012 project in Philadelphia:
Philly Painting Project
GET TOGETHER AND PAINT! STUDENTS AND NEWCOMERS CREATED TWO STUNNING CARPETS TOGETHER AT A UNITED PAINTING ACADEMY WORKSHOP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LAW IN FLORENCE
GET TOGETHER AND PAINT!
STUDENTS AND NEWCOMERS CREATED TWO STUNNING CARPETS TOGETHER AT AN UNITED PAINTING ACADEMY WORKSHOP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LAW IN FLORENCE
In November 2019 United Painting was invited to the University of Florence to perform a creative intervention. With approximately 60.000 students, the University of Florence is one of the oldest and biggest universities in Italy, a quite conservative institution in a traditional city with a right wing leaning political climate. The request was to create an art project that would stimulate the student’s perception of society outside the safety of the university walls.
This creative intervention consisted of the co-creation of a colorful carpet at the piazza surrounding the university buildings. In collaboration with Il Cenacolo, a local organization focusing on guiding newcomers, we found a group of youngsters who were eager to participate. On the first day, all participants received instructions including the message that everyone involved was not just supposed to execute, but also co-create.
On the second day, the participants had built enough confidence to actively involve passersby; to answer their questions and to invite them to take part and to pass on their newly acquired knowledge. Once finished, the welcome carpet had somehow turned into a magical carpet, attracting all kinds of users: playing children, people engaging in conversations with strangers. It became a pop up communal space, an example of instant placemaking.
By working with predesigned stencils and patterns, the shared ownership of the project was placed firmly in the hands of all who took part. After a brief introduction, participants were able to make their own decisions during the creative process, a conscious effort towards inclusivity and true co-creation; the outcome being an artwork with substantial visual and social impact.
Dr. Paola Pannia (post-doc research Fellow, consultant to UNHCR and NGO ‘Defense for Children’ and lawyer):
‘As researchers, we often struggle to communicate the outcome of our studies to a broader audience, in a straightforward and efficient way. Working with United Painting meant for us reaching this crucial goal. They managed to involve students, academics and random people passing by the university campus in a spectacular art performance which saw also the participation of young refugees as co-protagonists. The result was a spontaneous, genuine and creative exercise of cooperation, I would say a wonderful art craft in itself’.
ACADEMY WORKSHOP IN CURAÇAO LEADS TO A SERIES OF ART INTERVENTIONS IN THE OTROBANDA NEIGHBORHOOD
ACADEMY WORKSHOP IN CURAÇAO
LEADS TO A SERIES OF ART INTERVENTIONS IN THE OTROBANDA NEIGHBORHOOD OF WILLEMSTAD
The United Painting Academy, made possible by the Art of Impact Fund, is a series of 3 workshops held in Curacao between March and August 2016. The goal of the United Painting Academy Curaçao was to create a place where we could transfer our knowledge regarding the creation of large-scale community art projects.
We wanted to educate and inspire students, artists, volunteers and researchers interested in art and community driven projects. We combined architecture, design, social work and fundraising in a dynamic workshop setting, which eventually led to several art interventions in a neighbourhood called Otrobanda. The goal of these interventions was to improve the direct living environment address problems and stimulate participation and involvement of neighbours and to bring positive change.
For the first workshop we invited a group of international project partners and leaders from their projects in Rio de Janeiro, Port au Prince and Philadelphia, along with experts from Amsterdam and Los Angeles. They transferred and exchanged their project knowledge, expertise, project results and experiences with each other in order to learn and improve future project endeavours.
During workshop 2 and 3, the Otrobanda neighbourhood was painted. This resulted in over 20 colourful murals across the neighbourhood. The artistic intervention helped to overcome the parking problems that were present within the neighbourhood. The colourful patterns are designed to be inviting and seem to draw tourist into the small streets of Otrobanda.
The area is now seen as a tourist destination. During the project, the Ministry of Transport and Association for the Conservation of Monuments visited the area in order to talk about concrete solutions to improve the area, restore the buildings and reduce criminality.
The second and third workshop were attended by international students and artists from Colombia, United Kingdom, Aruba, Australia, United States and students from the university of Curaçao. Photo’s and stories of the workshops were published in over 6 local newspapers. Dick Drayer from the NTR Caribbean Network recorded the favela painters while they were painting the Otrobanda neighborhood. In the past, the local community of this neighbourhood protested against the decline of the area. Therefore abandoned buildings were painted white to address the deterioration of the area.
Local photographer and filmer Pet Holman created an ibook about the project. The ibook can found and downloaded in the Apple store and is called ‘Pigment Passion’.
UNITED PAINTING CREW THE HAGUE PAINTS MASSIVE ARTWORK ON THE FLOOR OF THE STUDENT HOTEL THE HAGUE COURTYARD
UNITED PAINTING CREW THE HAGUE
PAINTS MASSIVE ARTWORK ON THE FLOOR OF THE STUDENT HOTEL THE HAGUE COURTYARD
After carrying out projects in numerous Student Hotels across Europe (Florence, Berlin, Dresden), we were invited by The Student Hotel (TSH) The Hague to paint their inner courtyard.
This would be our first project in the Netherlands with TSH and also one of our biggest artworks so far (in m2). This invitation had special interest for us also due to the fact that in 2018 we had launched a project in a nearby social housing complex in The Hague. This project was still running at the time and we felt that this would be the perfect opportunity to give our crew in The Hague the opportunity to run a project on their own.
We were asked to start painting in the last months of 2019 which meant that we didn’t have many painting days due to weather conditions. Eventually we were forced to postpone the painting until spring 2020. When spring came we rounded up the crew and resumed painting. One team leader was present for the first days and helped with gridding out the design and from then on the painting was left to The Hague painting crew. Using Whatsapp they sent us regular updates which worked perfectly. The painting was finished in the beginning of May 2020.
One of our main goals was to have this project run independently by our crew in The Hague and also to make sure that TSH paid them for their work in a way that would bring more long term rewards such as a fitness subscription, free study space at the hotel etc.
To make sure this reward matched the needs of our crew, we first sat down with two of our most outspoken painters, Salam and Sanaa, and the manager of TSH The Hague. For the design we chose to work with Ana Taratiel, an incredible Spanish artist who uses vibrant colours and bold design, something well suited to the large surfaces we were preparing to paint.
Although the project was considered a great success we did however learn a valuable lesson from this project; never use cheaper paint. Due to budget challenges we were unable to afford primer/undercoat nor the paint we would have ideally liked to have used. The result of which was that by the spring we could see some colours were already starting to fade. That being said, to witness how smooth the whole process was, thanks to the The Hague crew, was a reward in itself.
FLORENCE REVISITED - ACADEMY EVENT TO MARK THE LAUNCH OF A LOCAL TASK FORCE AND A LARGE-SCALE PUBLIC ARTWORK
FLORENCE REVISITED
ACADEMY EVENT TO MARK THE LAUNCH OF A PAINT TASK FORCE AND A LARGE-SCALE PUBLIC ARTWORK
At their 2018 opening, The Student Hotel in Florence invited United Painting to create an artwork in cooperation with the local community and newcomers. Creating art together forged a bond between the local and migrant youths, proving their eagerness to be part of – and contribute to their hometown, changing public perceptions.
About a year later, United Painting returned to Florence to create a visual intervention and organise a seminar hosted by The Student Hotel to mark the launch of a large-scale local public artwork. We invited relevant stakeholders to be part of this game changing movement which is vital for an inclusive community in Florence. We compiled a list of their ideas and discussed them during the seminar, in order to create a solid task force that can work on inclusivity projects in Florence and perhaps beyond.
So far, this taskforce has been able to set up a painting project with the University of Florence (click here to read more) and a project to paint a main square in a working class-neighborhood in Florence together with local residents. Alongside this we are still planning to create a huge public artwork in the centre of Florence.
As we always feel like painting something, we decided to paint another part of the courtyard of the Student Hotel, where the event was hosted. For the design we collaborated with Marije Lytske Hester, a young and ambitious designer from the Netherlands who specialises in patterns and insane colour combinations!
