Paste Up: "Street Art" by the Teens of Studio loft

Blink Temporary Public Art Summer 2011

Backed by the City of Madison BLINK temporary art funding, local artists host a unique summer program and create large-scale installations along Madison's near east side. At some point, Shepherd Fairey, who gained notoriety for his Obama "Hope" posters, was a teenager. At some other point, Banksy, the elusive London-based street artist, also was 15-years-old-and perhaps, had anything like it existed, he would have gone to a summer camp like "Paste Up!" For the past week, a collection of 15 teenagers gathered at a studio loft on the near east of Madison for a unique, free summer camp (the only one in the country?): They are learning how to produce "street art." Over the course of five days they were introduced to ideas about how to turn ideas about social issues into images, about how to stir up batches of flour-and-water into glue and, ultimately, how to produce their own posters. Over the coming week, these posters-some as large as 15 by 15 feet-will "appear" on buildings along Willy Street and Atwood Avenues. "We have loved opening up our design studio to teens so that they can express their creative tendencies," said Scott Pauli from Art & Sons. "Seeing these images up on buildings on the East Side is going to be fulfilling for all of us. We really want to show the students that it is easy to get their artwork out to the public." It was a rambunctious week, teens from nearby Goodman Center, spent the week brainstorming social issues that matter to them-and then designing visual images to represent those ideas. They worked as a production house to crank out dozens of ideas and images. Sponsored by BLINK from the City of Madison and hosted by the Media Institute for Social Change, the Paste Up! Madison program was run by Art & Sons, the graphic design studio of Scott Pauli and Drew Garza. Nearby businesses-Weary Traveler, Madison Sourdough, El Rincon Tico, Batch, Ground Zero and Roman Candle Pizza-provided what one attendee called "the best camp food ever," and other local businesses are offering their exterior walls as canvases for the public art. On Friday, August 12, the program will conclude with an art opening-and a scavenger hunt that encourages residents to get out and find all of the art work, each "hidden" in plain view. Opening details: Where: Parking lot of Madison Sourdough, 916 Williamson Street When: Friday August 12th from 7pm until 10pm Maps to all the artwork will be available for a scavenger hunt

Links