Arts Development Case Study: Fleetsbridge Skate Park Mural
The Skate Park Mural project was developed with local young people, agencies, organizations and community groups in Creekmoor Poole.
It was delivered in partnership by
- Borough of Poole
- Creekmoor Community Association
- Millennium Volunteers, British Trust for Conservation Volunteers Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset
- Wave Arts Education Agency
The main objective was to enable local young people to produce a high quality painting for the 25 meter long wall next to the skate ramps, as a result of a program of workshops in schools and youth clubs led by a professional lead artist.
The aims of the project were:
- To empower young people using the skate park to redesign their social space and have ownership of it.
- To create a sense of belonging for the communities living in and using this area
- To bring young people and their communities together
- To prevent further anti social behaviour by investing in the skills and talents of young people using the skate park
- To foster a better working relationship between the Borough of Poole and the communities it serves
Background
The skate park beneath the Fleetsbridge underpass was a hot spot for antisocial behavior including offensive tagging and vandalism. The Borough of Poole was contacted by a local young person Ed Forsyth, staff from Millennium Volunteers BTCV, and the Mayor of Poole, to set up a mural project which would enable young people to create a high quality painting, to empower the young people using the skate park and give them control over the development of their social spaces.
The Fleetsbridge Skate Park is situated beneath a flyover next to a main gateway road into Poole in Creekmoor. The skate park is used by different groups of young people from the areas of Creekmoor, Waterloo, Oakdale and Broadstone, and from a wide catchment of local schools, and other young people from Bournemouth also travel there to use the facilities.
Access to the skate park is via a public footpath from Creekmoor and through the B+Q car park at the industrial estate at the back of the skate park.
There was very little structured activity available to young people in this area prior to the project, the youth services mobile van visited the site for an hour a week, but other than that it is an unsupervised play space. Many young people had approached us about feeling intimidated by the different groups that meet there, and that they believed a mural project could change the way people feel about the space by bringing them together.
The need for change was identified through three different channels - directly from young people using the site who wrote to the council asking for a legal graffiti wall to be established ; through young people contacting youth workers at Millennium volunteers who then contacted the council ; and also through the enthusiasm of the Mayor of Poole who opened the skate park a year ago and became a political advocate for the project.
A partnership with Creekmoor Community Association enabled funding to be sourced from the Community Foundation Local Network Fund, and strengthened links at community grassroots level. They were also key in promoting the projects work within the community.
Key issues/problems
As the skate park is an unsupervised open play space, there were difficulties identifying a core group of young people who would participate in the project. Capacity building was a core objective to make the project happen as there is not the regular contact with young people at the skate park that schools or youth clubs have.
It emerged that the skaters that use the site were not interested in painting the mural or attending workshops, after an extensive recruitment process failed to identify any interest from them. However, at further visits to the site when the skaters were there, they were clear that they were happy for the project to go ahead, and supported it throughout the duration.
We ran a programme of nine workshops in three schools and two youth clubs over a seven week period (February – April 2007), in order to raise awareness for the project; for local young people to recognize the difference between graffiti as an art form rather than vandalism; for them to appreciate the history of how the graffiti art form evolved around the world ; and to find a core group of young people who would want to help paint the mural.
There was pressure to complete the mural by 15 May 2007 as the Mayor was keen to launch the final mural during her term.
What we did
To make the project happen, a project manager was elected from the Arts Development Unit who wrote a comprehensive project plan in consultation with young people and partners at all stages. A core delivery group was established with key staff members from the partner agencies and young people.
The project manager liaised with a wide range of service units across the Borough of Poole to get permissions, planning and insurance to enable to the project, working with colleagues from:
- Arts Development
- Youth
- Leisure
- Highways and Transportation
- Planning
- Communications
- Housing and Community
- Legal services
A strong partnership with the Creekmoor Community Associaltion (CCA) resulted in a successful grant application made to the Community Foundation, which core funded the project, as well as a contribution from Housing and Community at the Borough of Poole, and Wave Arts Education Agency.
The project is an example of a successful multi-agency approach to youth arts project development, with Dani from Millennium Volunteers being central in ensuring all young peoples needs are met at each stage of the project and that their commitment to the project was recognized and rewarded.
There were key people that enabled the delivery of the project, which was a strength of the project as it distributed responsibilities to those who could make them happen, but it was also a weakness as if someone was away for whatever reason, it would set the process back. Minutes were taken to prevent this from happening, and meetings and an email group was established to keep everyone up to date.
These key people included:
Staff Roles and Responsibilities
- Marianne Scahill BOP: Arts in the Community Officer: Project manager, development, planning, artist liaison
- Andy Pedrick CCA Chair + project liaison
- PC. Andy Jenkins Creekmoor Police + funding referee
- Cllr. Judy Butt Mayor of Poole, political advocacy
- Ian Cooke BOP: Anti-social behaviour officer, steering group partner
- Bryan Wood BOP: Community Liaison
- Rob Smith BOP: Arts in Education coordinator, development; planning + schools liaison
- Dani Ford-Horne MV: Mentoring coordinator, young peoples contact + project delivery
- Adrian Wilkins BOP: Youth services mobile van
- Martin Whitchurch BOP: Ranger + access consultant
- Colin Dutfield BOP: Senior youth key worker + Out of hours YP contact + youth services liaison
- Mike Gotobed BOP: Technical Officer : Play Spaces
- Felix Braun Lead Artist
- Ed Forsyth YP Mentor + Skate park user / advisor
- Lynne Wait BOP: Senior Civil Engineer Highways / Transportation liaison
Ed Forsyth was the key young person involved in the project from the very beginning, and was involved in all stages of the project from its inception, development, recruitment of the lead artist, attending all design workshops; supporting younger participants; and installing of the mural. He has since gone on to become a member of V20 – the national volunteering council for young people; has completed a silver Youth Arts Award qualification through the project; and is a leading figure in developing phase 2 of the project – to paint the opposite wall at the skate park.
Artists Felix Braun was central in building the capacity of young people taking part in the project, and his enthusiasm for the artform and his integrity with only painting graffiti legally, inspired the workshop participants greatly, and meant we sourced our core group of painters for the project.
Testimonials from young people attending the design workshops include:
Q: Did you enjoy the session?
Yes got an insight as to how graffiti came about and evolved
Yes because it gave me the chance to try something new and to be creative
Yes it was fun to sample a different kind of art than usual
Yes because I never got really into anything before but this I did.
Yes because it was relaxing and I learnt something new
Yes because I could draw whatever I wanted and used different styles which I haven’t before
“Yes it was nice to just let go and not have to worry about the art going wrong”
Yes I got a good 1st impression of graffiti art
Key outcomes
Our original objectives for the project were:
To create mentoring opportunities for young people to work with professional artists
This was a key outcome of the project as the professional artist we recruited, Felix Braun, was open and committed to sharing his skills and experiences with all the young people on the project, and mentored Ed and a few other young people through their Youth Arts Award and supervised them supporting younger participants on the project.
He became a positive role model for all of the young people taking part on the project, to the point where 3 of the participants are considering working professionally as community graffiti artists. It was important for the young people to work with a professional artists for them to realise there are progression routes and professional opportunities in the arts.
Through the workshops young people learned the value of working on their designs on paper before even going near a paint can, which made their designs and the final composition of the production extremely high quality.
Mentoring placements were supported by Dani from Millennium Volunteers, and at the end of the project all 16+ participants were given a certificate award for the number of volunteering hours they had worked – some had given up to 200 hours.
To work with communities to develop a high quality mural painting for the fleetsbridge underpass
This was a key outcome as the funding was awarded to the project through the Creekmoor Community Association, which enabled the young people to make a difference to their community and environment by making the mural.
This funding also enabled us to make sure we had a high quality outcome at every stage of the project – from recruiting a high quality participatory graffiti artist; to using high quality materials; to ensuring there was food, drink and infrastructure available at every stage ; and a high quality varnish finish to the mural thanks to a partnership contribution from Highways and Transportation at the council.
This high quality production empowered the young people in the community as they designed and painted the mural themselves and instilled real sense of pride for all of those taking part. Feedback from passers by was overwhelmingly positive at all times, with drivers on the adjacent road often stopping to tell us how amazing they thought it was looking and how great it was to see young people being productive and proactive in their community.
To create a safe and dynamic space for young people to meet and play
The results of this key outcome will be evident over time, but at the moment, the mural remains untouched, tagging has been reduced, and there is overwhelming support from the young people to run a second phase of the project.
Impact
The project has had a great impact on the young people taking part, as many had never engaged in a community project like this before, which led to new friendships being made; a increased self confidence of those taking part ; enthusiasm and commitment from all partners and participants ; and not one single can of spray paint went missing throughout the whole duration of the project!
Comments from participants included:
Q: Did you learn anything new? If so what?
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