West Lodge school mural & workshop co-creation
WeTheSeeds worked with West Lodge School with aims to create a new addition to the school playground, one which reflected school values, kept children engaged and inspired them when it came to academic development.
The brief was to create a mural inspired by the “No Outsiders” ideology, which promotes community cohesion to prepare young people for life as global citizens.
The hand-painted mural itself had to be co-created with year 6 children following a sports theme. The children had to feel invested into the mural’s design in a way in which they could feel like it was them leaving their legacy behind at the school.
WeTheSeeds was eager to ensure all stakeholders, including parents could feel proud in not only the installation of the mural, but in it’s inception as a design.
West Lodge school mural & workshop co-creation
The process
The first thing to do was to work with the school to create the design for the mural.
Our design team kept in mind that parts of the mural’s overall design had to be left blank for the children’s ideas to be put in.
Once the design had been agreed with the school staff, we ran an art & design related sports figure drawing workshop with the children. This was a unique opportunity for the children to learn about illustration skills from an experienced lead artist, all whilst drawing each other in a style directly related to their syllabus.
As the year group drew one another in sports poses, our design team digitalised the best ones. We even received an opportunity to showcase the finished mural design and mock-ups within assembly, complete with digitalised illustrations of the children’s sports figures.
Growing the seeds
WeTheSeeds sourced, screened and briefed the right specialist artists for the mural’s installation, artists in which would both compliment the mural’s graphic style and artists who were passionate about working with children.
As year 6 had already worked hard on the mural’s design, we called them back to further their investment into the playground piece. With a paintbrush in hand, we hosted a mural painting workshop session in which each child had a chance to paint areas of the mural on-site. This was guided by our support staff & every child in the year group had a chance to be involved.
WeTheSeeds completed installation works of the mural including groundwork and final details. The mural was welcomed by staff, parents and children as a positive co-created new addition to the school’s overall identity.
