Floral graffiti for the neighborhood

In the summer, the Garage Campus became the stage for a special project: around 50 pupils from year 9 at the Albert Schweitzer Secondary School, neighbors, artists and urban art experts came together to beautify the outdoor area of the Garage Campus and provide inspiration for an actively designed neighbourhood.

The project week began with a thematic introduction. The young people worked out their thoughts and ideas on the keywords “neighborhood”, “their own living environment” and “street art & graffiti” in a creative way at themed tables. It quickly became clear that for the young people, cohesion and mutual support are important foundations of a neighborhood. They want to play an active role in shaping their living environment, with the sharing of needs and the topic of “greening” playing a central role in making them feel comfortable.

Street art and graffiti as expression
After an introduction to graffiti techniques by artists from Haus Arthur e.V. and the “Wall of Femme” collective, all the young people developed their own designs. From Tuesday to Friday, the pupils were then free to decide whether they wanted to work on the joint graffiti artwork. We came together every day from 2 p.m. and received continuous support despite the challenge of coordinating timetables and leisure activities. A floral motif was chosen as the unifying element and was jointly designed by the Garage Crew (Joe Strakosch, Alexandra Gerber, Josie Lynn Rother, Leon Arnold, Fabian Drechsler, Jannick Nötzold, Christian Goede, Maxi Lachmann, Nico Walther, Martin Steinbach, Yul Damien Sand) to create a complete work of art.

Collaboration with the neighborhood
As the garage campus could not offer any space for design measures due to the construction site situation, neighbor Sigrid Schmidtke made her garage façade available to us as a canvas. The collaborative design was presented to Sigrid and other neighbors, who agreed to the experiment and gave the young people space for their creative ideas. We would like to thank Sigrid and the neighbors involved for their support and trust!

Festive inauguration
Within a week, a work of art was created that not only adorns the garage campus, but the entire neighborhood. The project shows how art can enrich public spaces and strengthen the sense of community. Young people were motivated to become active through artistic methods and were able to implement their own ideas. The artwork was officially inaugurated on September 7. The results were presented at a small vernissage, accompanied by parents, teachers and neighbors. In keeping with the floral graffiti, all participants received graffiti-style flowers as a thank you.

Diese Maßnahme wurde mitfinanziert mit Steuermitteln auf Grundlage des vom Sächsischen Landtag beschlossenen Haushaltes.