Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today about street art through digital and new media.

We're going to do lots of thinking, talking, and exploring together in this lesson.

So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain what street art is, why artists create it, and describe different styles and messages it conveys.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords we'll be using today are street art, graffiti, stencil, mural, and public space.

I'm going to say those again, and I'd like you to repeat them after me.

Street art, graffiti, stencil, mural, public space.

Good job.

Now, let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean by taking a look at their definitions.

Street art is art created in public spaces, often with social or political messages.

Graffiti can be writing or images that have been sprayed, stencil, painted, scratched, or drawn on a public space.

A stencil is a template used to apply a design quickly and cleanly, often with spray paint.

A mural is a large artwork painted or applied directly onto a wall or ceiling.

And a public space is an open area, and it's accessible to everyone, such as streets, parks, or buildings.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in today's lesson.

Understanding street art and exploring artists and messages.

In the first learning cycle, we're going to understand street art.

Have you ever seen art on the walls of a street? Pause the video here and have a quick discussion with your partner, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you discuss? Had you seen any art on walls of a street? Anything like this image here? Well, street art is artwork created in public spaces, and it can include murals, stencils, posters, and even digital projections.

You can see this street art mural on a building wall here.

A mural is a large artwork painted or applied directly onto a wall or ceiling.

You can see this street artist here on a ladder painting a mural.

A stencil is a template used to apply a design quickly and cleanly, and it's often with spray paint.

Stencils enable artists to prepare their designs before transferring them onto another surface.

Street artists often use public spaces to express ideas or messages.

Can you see this message here? It's almost hidden between the trees.

It says Black lives matter.

Now this means that some street art conveys social or political messages.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

What is the main purpose of street art? To decorate people's homes, to sell in art galleries, to express ideas or messages in public spaces.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about this question, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said to express ideas or messages in public spaces, you're absolutely right.

That's the main purpose of street art.

Now, "What's the difference between street art and graffiti?" Lucas is asking.

Hmm, what do you think? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, graffiti is a form of writing or images that have been sprayed, stencilled, painted, scratched, or drawn on a public space.

You can see some graffiti writing and torn posters on a wall here.

Now, while graffiti often includes stylized writing or tagging, street art is usually created with the intention of sharing an idea, message, or beautifying a space.

Can you see this large street art mural of an elephant with some text here? Now, street art comes in many forms, including stencils, wheat-pasting, murals, stickers, digital art, and installations.

You can see this woman here cycling beside a colourful mosaic tile wall.

So another way of creating street art through tiles.

For street artists, public spaces can be used to share messages, to protest, to celebrate culture, or to make people think.

Discuss with a partner if you have seen any street art locally and what message you think it was trying to send.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to discuss, and press play when you're ready to continue.

Had you seen any street art, and what message did you think it was trying to send? Well, let's take a look at this mural here of a woman lifting a seal from plastics in water.

Lucas says, "I think the mural in this picture is about protecting animals and nature from ocean plastic waste." And Aisha says, "I remember seeing an artwork of many hands holding the Earth.

It made me feel connected to others, our world and our responsibility to take care of it." Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

What is missing from this gap here to complete this sentence? Something is a technique often used in street art.

Is it oil painting, stencilling, or clay sculpting? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said stencilling is a technique often used in street art, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

This brings us to our first learning task.

Using the printed or digital images of street art, in pairs or groups, answer these questions.

What do you see? What techniques do you think were used? What message do you think the artist is trying to communicate and how does it make you feel? Pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a discussion in your pairs or groups about these images of street art, and press play when you are ready to continue.

How did you get on? Well, maybe you had a discussion and you said something like Aisha.

She says, "In this example, a circular cloud-like design has been painted around a window which looks through to another space with a tree in it.

I think the artist is inviting us to look beyond the surface of the wall and see something new.

It makes me feel energised and imaginative." So well done if you were able to take a look at these images and think about those questions.

About what you could see, what message the artist was trying to get across, and how they made you feel.

We're now ready to move into the second part of our lesson.

We're going to explore artists and messages.

The street art movement emerged in 1970s New York in America as a form of accessible urban expression.

Since then, it has evolved from graffiti to intricate murals, digital art, and installations.

Street arts can now be found in many parts of the world, expressing ideas and messages, making it an influential and important art form.

Street artist Shamsia Hassani creates her art in public spaces to showcase political and social messages inspired by her life experiences of gender inequality in Afghanistan.

Saype is a street artist who creates large-scale murals and installations using biodegradable paints and eco-friendly materials.

His work references environmental awareness and social responsibility.

Art has the ability to inspire our imaginations, spark conversations, and even change the way people think.

Because of this, street art can be used to create powerful visual statements that can be seen by many.

While some graffiti is done without permission, many street artists get permission or are commissioned to create their inspiring works.

You can see an artist painting a mural there in a public space.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

All street art is vandalism and illegal.

Is this statement true or false? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? If you said that was false, you're absolutely right.

But why is that false? Pause the video here and have a discussion with your partner about why this statement is false, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you discuss? If you said something like, "While some graffiti is done without permission, many street artists get permission or are commissioned to create their work.

And street art can be a respected and impactful form of expression," you're absolutely right, well done.

As well as painted murals, spray paints, and stencils, street artists may experiment with materials to create impactful installations and artworks.

You can see these colourful layers that have been placed on top of some exposed brickwork.

Vhils is a Portuguese street artist who peels back layers of dirt, plaster, and walls to create large scale portraits of people in nearby communities that he calls everyday heroes.

Similarly, a form of street art referred to as reverse graffiti, involves artists creating designs or messages by cleaning dirt and grime from the walls and pavements in public spaces with brushes, scrapers, and power washers.

Rather than using paint, yarn bombing is another form of street art that involves covering objects like trees, lampposts, and benches found in public spaces with colourful knitted or crocheted yarn.

You can see example of that there.

That yarn bombing on a tree with some colourful crocheted geometric designs.

Now the aim of yarn bombing is to bring joy and beauty into everyday public spaces.

Street art can convey and evoke many different messages.

It might be social, political, beautiful, funny, motivational, or simply add colour and brighten up a space.

Take a look at this street art here of colourful creatures on this mural.

That looks rather funny, and it's also colourful and would brighten up anybody's day.

Ultimately, it is up to each artist to decide what is important to them and choose how to bring their ideas to life on the street.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Can you match the keywords to their definitions? So the keywords we've got here are street art, graffiti, stencil, mural, and public space.

And the definitions are: an area open and accessible to everyone, such as streets, parks, or buildings; a template used to apply a design quickly and cleanly, often with spray paint; writing or images that have been sprayed, stencilled, painted, scratched, or drawn on a public space; art created in public spaces, often with social or political messages; and a large artwork painted or applied directly onto a wall or ceiling.

Pause the video here to give yourself some time to match these keywords to their definitions, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? Well, hopefully you matched street art with art created in public spaces, often with social or political messages.

Graffiti is writing or images that have been sprayed, stencil, painted, scratched, or drawn on a public space.

A stencil is a template used to apply a design quickly and cleanly, often with spray paint.

A mural is a large artwork painted or applied directly onto a wall or ceiling.

And a public space is an area open and accessible to everybody, such as streets, parks, or buildings.

Well done for matching those keywords to their definitions.

This now brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to collaboratively design a large-scale wall mural on paper or digitally, inspired by a community or school theme.

So in small groups, design and draw a mural artwork onto a large paper roll, or tape together A3 paper, or using digital media.

Choose a motivational message or positive slogan to feature in your design.

For example, "Be heard," or "You Matter." Use bold colours, shapes, and symbolic imagery.

And finally, assemble all the sections together on a classroom display to simulate a mural wall in a public space.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at this learning task, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you find that? Were parts of that a little bit tricky? Well, you might have an example that looks a little bit like this.

You've been able to collaboratively design that wall mural either on paper or digitally, and you've chosen a theme that's based around community or school.

Now, this design was made digitally using different hand-drawn symbols, imagery, bright colours, and a motivational message.

You can see here, "Believe in Yourself." So well done for having a go at creating your own wall mural together, and well done for completing this learning task.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about artists who create street art.

Street art is an art form which can convey a variety of messages and ideas.

Street artists use different techniques like stencils to create murals in public spaces.

Artworks may convey social and political messages or add colour to a space.

Not all graffiti is illegal.

Many street artists are commissioned to produce their inspiring artworks.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.