ART AS A TOOL

Art as a vehicle to spread hope and positivity?

Street art with the power to change lives comes to North-West community

By Jonathan Lee, 10 April 2024

For The Gazette (Blackpool)

Striking street art which has transformed communities around the world is coming to a North-West town to help turn its fortunes around.

Street artists Christian Fenn (aka Seca) and Hayley Garner (Aylo) are bringing their eye-catching murals to Fleetwood in a community engagement project designed to help its people and the place.

Christian, from Blackpool, and Hayley from Rochdale, have been involved in projects in Mexico, Morocco and the USA, and are delighted to be working on an initiative aimed at helping people on their doorstep. Christian said: “I have got a passion for helping change people’s lives for the better. I support the underdogs. There are people living in communities like Blackpool and Fleetwood who don’t get the life chances that others do in different parts of the country for a whole host of reasons. I want to do my bit to try to change that.

“We are looking at using mural art to help transform Fleetwood with ten murals across the town which will help bring pride and hope to local people - and also bring visitors into the town to see the murals which will help support the local economy. Fleetwood is the ideal community to be doing this. It needs something to help lift the community. So why not get it known as an arts town - using art as a vehicle to spread hope and positivity?

“We will be running community workshops, and each mural we do will be inspired mostly by the group we do the workshops with. The end result will be that Fleetwood itself becomes an art museum which injects pride back into the town for residents and brings in visitors from all over to come and see the art.”

The Big Heart Project (https://www.thebigheartprojects.com) - ‘Transforming Our Towns One Mural At A Time’ - aims to leave a lasting legacy of positivity and change in Fleetwood and beyond. Each mural will be interactive with a QR code so people can listen and see on their mobile phones the stories, creativity and artistic thinking behind each image.

Christian said: “There’s the visible inspiration of seeing art like this across a community. Then when you hear the stories behind them it takes the experience to another level. It really helps people to engage with the murals and gives the artwork even more power to change people’s lives for the better.” “Hopefully this will start bringing people into the town and help to turn around Fleetwood’s fortunes as a place and raise the aspirations of people living here to be the best they can be. Art like this can really lift a place. It’s using art as a tool for regeneration. I really saw the power of murals to do that in a community in Morocco where I worked on a similar project.”

The Big Heart Project is run by Butterfly Effected, a Community Interest Company (CIC) founded by Christian and co-directed by Hayley, which uses art, storytelling, and therapy to inspire and support individuals facing adversity, with a focus on addiction, mental health, LGBTQ+ rights and child poverty.

Prada's confidence in real-life retail

9 March 2024

Financial Times

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While New York's commercial real estate sector has experienced a turbulent few years as it struggles to recover from the impact of the pandemic, and a retail reckoning has forced historic department stores such as Barneys to shut down, "the problem is not lack of demand", Bertelli, Miuccia Prada's husband, tells the Financial Times. "If you manage a luxury department store as merely a financial operation as opposed to focusing on the commercial aspects, the products and the customer experience, of course it goes wrong."

Over the past two decades, Prada has launched three so-called "epicenters" in New York, Tokyo and Los Angeles retail spaces that double up as venues for film screenings, performances and other "intellectual" gatherings. "We've been accused of consumerism, but actually, we saw what was coming, how customer demand would shift," says Bertelli.

The idea is to get closer to customers by being a more active participant in cultural conversations, Bertelli explains. "After all, the definition of luxury nowadays is quality of life in every aspect, including what we eat, how we travel, the art and culture we have access to and what we wear."

Miuccia Prada, the founding family's scion and co-creative director of the brand, has long been interested in art as a tool to reflect on the world, and has sought to interpret her ideological concepts through clothes.

Her spring/summer 1996 "Banal Eccentricity" collection marked a turning point as it established the transgressive identity the brand is known for today. By featuring contrasting concepts, colours and textiles, it marked the beginning of Prada's subversive approach, reshaping ideas of aesthetics and making the ugly appealing.

Just Stop Oil’s art-based protests can speak to future generations – or even the cosmos

12 February 2024

The Guardian

Roger Hallam responds to an article by Giovanni Aloi claiming climate protesters have fallen into big oil’s trap by attacking art

I always find it interesting that when it comes to the most important question of our time – how to create a revolutionary force to stop the carbon regime – a hotchpotch of liberal professionals (scientists, lawyers, art curators, etc) seem happy to use their social privilege to appear in the mainstream media to give their two pennies’ worth on “what needs to be done” ( After 38 attacks on art, climate protesters have fallen into big oil’s trap – it’s time to change tack, 6 February ).

As a mobilisation specialist, I would not dream of writing articles critical of Giovanni Aloi’s work in the world of art. What would I know? The classic error is to think within your own cultural silo. When claiming that an act of disruption “felt … pathetic”, the question is: who is doing the “feeling”? Well, people like Aloi, presumably, who have a self-serving agenda. Why does he assume that resisters want to be “effective” in getting small gains from the most genocidal governments in history? The idea that you are speaking to future generations – or even to the cosmos – are orientations that never get considered.

Art Vocabulary

Study online at https://quizlet.com/_exsbrq

1. abstract: abstrait
2. acrylic paint: la peinture acrylique

3. analogous: analogue, comparable, similaire 

4. analyze: analyser, décortiquer
5. architecture: l'architecture
6. art critique: critique d'art

7. artist: un artiste
8. asymmetrical: asymétrique
9. background: arrière-plan, contexte 

10. balance: équilibre
11. canvas: une toile
12. ceramics: la céramique
13. collage: un collage
14. color scheme: palette de couleurs 

15. complementary: complémentaire 

16. composition: la composition
17. contrast: le contraste
18. cool colors: les couleurs froides 

19. depth: la profondeur
20. easel: le chevalet
21. emphasis: accent, importance
22. focal point: le centre d'attention 

23. foreground: au premier plan
24. hatching: les hachures
25. mesmerizing: fascinant
26. Evocative: évocateur
27. Expressive: expressif
28. Masterful: magistral, remarquable 

29. striking: frappant(e)/marquant(e) 

30. enigmatic: énigmatique
31. timeless: éternel, intemporel
32. alluring: séduisant
33. majestic: majestueux

34. harmonious: harmonieux
35. meticulous: minutieux, minutieuse
36. unconventional: non conventionnel
37. dazzling: éblouissant
38. Ethereal: céleste, aérien
39. Whimsical: fantasque
40. profound: profond, approfondi, important 

41. provocative: provocateur
42. Resplendent: resplendissant, magnifique 

43. Captivating: fascinant
44. Breathtaking: à couper le souffle
45. Awe-inspiring: qui inspire l'effroi