’Art as Activism’ – Collaborative Mural Program with Artist Lucinda Penn at Woodville High School for Create4Adelaide

Through surveying young people about issues they care about, climate change was at the top of the list. Launched in 2023, Create4Adelaide is a large-scale project encouraging young people to develop their creative skills and engage with local climate change priorities. Create4Adelaide instigated diverse creatives to use their mediums with students to tackle this important and complex topic. Lucinda received the brief of creating a collaborative mural focusing on the three main environmental impacts of the earth’s pollution of airways & waterways, extinction of species and extreme weather events and connecting back to the school’s own environment and values.

Lucinda’s program began by presenting about her practice, then warm-up activities with word association. Next, discussions and activities about symbolism. Art teacher Natalia and project manager Caitlin helped to lead collaborative mind mapping about the three main topics of climate change. Next Lucinda led students to evolve these topics into symbolic drawings individually. Using timers, divergent thinking and quantitative drawings were encouraged. To deter negative imagery, activism and education became the focus of qualitative drawings. Lucinda compiled the symbolic ideas into a design in her style. 150 students painted the mural with Lucinda’s mentorship in small groups over two weeks.

Student leaders initiated the environmental mural idea and Lucinda’s program engaged pupils from start to finish; idea, design and creation; including painting from a 2-metre platform. Students were empowered by fulfilling their idea, walking past the outcome daily and leaving a legacy. The program was designed to provide a platform for collaborative and active education and artistic expression. This has supported a sense of school belonging and pride, connection to a greater cause, and unity across SA in Create4Adelaide. The large-scale artwork instils prioritisation of the climate, inspires present and future students, and injects a colourful welcome into the school.

The mural design illustrates the journey of education symbolised by roads and steps intertwining with books and laptops amongst native elements. The sulphur-crested cockatoo mirrors those which fly by and the plovers represent the inhabitants on the oval. These birds symbolise our airways and the dolphins in the ocean, our waterways. The gumnuts and branches further this native representation to highlight the Kaurna people as the traditional custodians of this land. The hands holding the earth centre the environment at the heart of the concept. Overall, the mural illustrates how your learnings at school are taken on into your life beyond, especially how everything we see, do and experience is connected to our precious environment which needs looking after so we can continue to exist on earth. Paints were donated by Dulux Australia. The wall was prepared by the Woodville High School grounds staff. The video which documented the process was created by local documentarian and producer Ben Golotta of Repeater Studios, with support from Scarlett Scherer and Mayah Salter. Jessica McCall had support from the University of SA and videographer Andrei Gostin in her feature of the project on BTS with Jess.