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Note to Teachers: Getting Started This PowerPoint presentation accompanies Lesson 13: Public Art as a Form of Participation from the Standing Up for Democracy scheme of work. It is important to read the lesson plan in order to understand its rationale and historical context, extension activities, as well as information in the Notes to Teachers section about materials that need to be prepared in advance of the lesson. This presentation includes verbal instructions for the activities in the Notes beneath each slide. Accessing hyperlinks in PowerPoint involves extra steps: select View - Notes Page - right click on the hyperlink - and select Open Hyperlink. Alternatively, you can access the hyperlinks from Lesson 13: Public Art as a Form of Participation or by viewing the presentation in Google Slides. While you may need to modify this presentation to meet the needs of your students, please note that Facing History and Ourselves is not accountable for any changes that alter the presentation's content or original layout. Information about Standing Up for Democracy PowerPoint Slides Each PowerPoint accompanies a corresponding lesson plan that includes more detailed instructions about the activities and should be read in advance of teaching the lesson. Wherever possible, we have used images in lieu of writing to encourage the verbal delivery of instructions as a means of boosting focus and to promote active listening skills. The same image is used for each recurring teaching strategy throughout the scheme of work to facilitate recall and promote student independence.

Public Art as a Form of Participation

Guiding Question How can public works of art memorialise the history, struggles, and triumphs of the individuals and groups that make up our communities and be used as a form of civic participation? Public Art as a Form of Participation: Learning Objective To analyse a segment of the Battle of Cable Street Mural and reflect on the role of public art to commemorate, educate, and build community.

Why do you think artists create public art and murals? What murals or other public works of art do you see in your local community or at your school? Why do you think artists create public art and murals? What impact, if any, do these pieces of art have on you or others in your community? First, ask students to respond in their journals to the three questions. Next, have them share their ideas in a Think, Pair, Share and then as a class. Make a list on the board of local murals and public art, discussing, if possible, their purpose and how the artists achieve this purpose.

Identify the part of the mural that first caught your eye. Identify a part of the mural that represents a specific moment in the Battle of Cable Street that you learned about in the last lesson. Identify a part of the image that shows a tension, problem, or dilemma. Identify part of the mural that raises a question for you. Tell students that in 1979 artist Dave Binnington began work on a large mural on the 3,500 square foot wall of the St. George’s Town Hall in Shadwell, in London’s East End, to commemorate the 1936 Battle of Cable Street. The mural depicts key events and people from 4th October 1936, as well as images in one section of the Bangladeshi residents living in the local community since the 1960s. Pair up students to analyse the image A Segment of the Battle of Cable Street Mural. Pass out the crop it tools and copies of the image to each pair. Explain to students that the image is a section of the mural (most of the left-hand side), and that they will be using their crop-it tools to help them look closely at small segments of the mural. Click to reveal the two white boxes and red arrows to help model the Crop It strategy. Then project the prompts one at a time to help students analyse and discuss the image with their partners.

Project the image A Segment of the Cable Street Mural. Invite students to share the parts of the mural that raise questions for them and see if the class can help them find answers. Alamy

Then project the image The Cable Street Mural so that students can see the right-hand side of the mural that was not part of their Crop It activity. Depending on time, you might invite some students to identify and discuss parts of this projected image using their Crop It tools or move on to the next activity. Alamy The Cable Street Mural

To provide students with some historical context for the mural and the changing demographics of London’s East End in the 1970s, pass out and read aloud an excerpt from “An Antidote to the Far Right's Poison”: The Battle for Cable Street’s Mural (this is an external link).

How would you respond to this individual’s question? What story or message can the Battle of Cable Street mural, and other murals and street art, convey that is different from what you might learn from a history book or written account of a historical event? In the early stages of the mural project in 1978, an individual opposed to the mural wrote to the local paper: “Do we need a reminder in the form of a large picture of violence being perpetually re-enacted?” How would you respond to this individual’s question? Should artists focus on beauty and avoid politics? Or can art have a function in political struggles? In small groups, or as a class, discuss the questions. There are two questions on this slide and two questions on the next two slides.

What did teacher Rachel Burns mean when, after working on a project that brought together Jewish and Muslim students to learn about the mural, she said that the students “realised it was not only about racism but also about solidarity”? What might she have meant by “it”? What can we learn about racism by learning the history of the Battle of Cable Street and its mural? What can we learn about solidarity by learning the history of the Battle of Cable Street and this history of its mural?

What is the role of art in creating community? What is the role of art in educating people? What is the role of art as a call for mutual respect and tolerance in the face of discrimination and unfairness?

Imagine that you are submitting a grant proposal to design a mural that calls attention to, and educates your community about, a historical event or an injustice. Write a short proposal in which you explain the design of your mural and include a description of its significant historical figures, people or groups, landmarks or other objects, and any text that you plan to include on your mural. Consider how your mural might serve as both a memorial and tool to educate community members and visitors, and spark important conversations. Ask students to respond to these prompts in their journals. You might give them time to brainstorm or sketch in advance, or make this journal reflection a larger project that involves researching their communities to learn more about the history and coming up with ideas for where they might place their mural.

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