The 8^th Grade class of Ring Mountain Day School in Mill Valley, CA participated in a mural painting activity with Ecuadorian arts collective, P.O.S. The students spent one week in Ecuador as part of a cultural immersion program lead by the school’s Spanish teacher, Carolyn Corry. To integrate a participatory art experience for the students, art teacher, Pedro Mena, organized a mural painting activity with Ecuadorian street arts collective, P.O.S. (Pobre Oscuro Sur – translation Poor Dark South which refers to the part of the city where they are from.) P.O.S, lead by Daniel Cobos, has been painting murals throughout Ecuador for the past 10 years. They create striking pieces incorporating poetry and imagery referencing the plights of Ecuador’s indigenous culture. The tribute mural is based on Ecuador’s greatest social realist painter, Oswaldo Guayasamin and his groundbreaking piece, “Revolucion”. The mural is part of a yearly thematic rotation by the arts collective.  

Google has an annual student competition to incorporate their logo in an art work. This reeks a bit of corporate narcissism in my opinion and doesn't really give students any added benefit by doing the exercise.  Is it supposed to be cute?  I'm sure it further indoctrinates students who participate in accepting the ubiquity of their brand in the hope of winning a scant of amount of cash for college.  

This video provides a great overview of Kickstarter. This program celebrates the 15th Anniversary of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts youth art program by creating a commemorative silk screen print.

This project is in part a social experiment about art, about the public trust, about the willingness of people to cross the threshold from observation to participation.  Although the students seemed pretty relaxed about letting their art out into the world, I had my own fears about the outcome and have a hidden litmus test as to what counted as valid participation as opposed to mere vandalism

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You Complete Me - 2010 from Participation|Art on Vimeo.

The folks over at the 1AM Gallery  in the Tenderloin of San Francisco are doing some fabulous work promoting graffiti and street art culture.  A few dates I was privileged to bring a group of students to one of their classes taught by the phenomenal Nate1.

Read more at the 1am website.