youth — Copy-Writing — In the footsteps of an Itinerant Child

HomeGrown is a community urban arts project based in Bristol, we aim to raise the profile of local graffiti artists and their art. This has been set up to encourage members of the community to interact with each and think about graffiti as an art form, which, can make the area you live a more interesting and colourful place. “We encourage the community’s artists, residents and local business owners to come together and create ideas to beautify and, in a way, possess their environment“.

The weekend of the 11th and 12th of November 2006 saw the launch of HomeGrownYouth. Over 20 of Bristol finest and up and coming graffiti artists gathered at a site in Easton, Bristol, to take part in the first event. Artists spent the weekend painting boarding which surrounds the site on the corner of Goodhind Street and Pennywell Road, creating a free, open art exhibition.

Communities all over the world, for thousands of years have decorated their immediate environment allowing them to both beautify it and to make it their own. But today the only decoration our streets can get legally are glossy advertisements and there are thousands of them. Graffiti is forced to be a crime and thus people treat it as such on both sides. The project works to break down misconceptions about the art form and to give it a positive role in the community.

Project co-ordinator Becca Vagg, who lives in Bristol has been inspired by graffiti art for a long time, she felt frustrated at the negative attitude which was targeted at the graffiti community in Bristol, including her boyfriend who is a graffiti artist. 'In my local area of St Werburghs and St Paul’s there is a huge problem with tagging, which to me is not an art form. Many people regard tagging as the same as graffiti and there is a lot of negative attitude towards it. There are so many talented artists in the area and I wanted to set up a project to not only provide legal spaces to paint but to also raise the profile of the art and artists.'

The project aims to work with building sites, shops, local businesses and home owners, to provide legal space for artists to paint on, replacing vandalized areas with works of art, which will not only benefit business and home owners but the local community.

We hope to expand the project by securing funding and working in other areas of Bristol. We also hope to get young people involved by organising graffiti workshops, where they will learn graffiti skills and also have space for them to practice and display their work.

the project will help young people by giving them the opportunity to express themselves in a creative way, build new skills, develop social interaction skills, learn from positive hole models as well as having a sense of achievement and pride on the community. it will also allow them to enter into the wider community with skills that will make them more employable.

Copyright 2006