Plaistow’s New Mural Fights Fly-Tipping and Promotes Sustainability

Paint the Change is partnering with the community-building collective LoveE15 to create a public mural at the corner of Chaplin Street and Ranelagh Road in Plaistow, Newham. The mural is being painted by artist ATMA and is designed to combat fly-tipping, promote environmentalism, and beautify the neighborhood. 

The mural titled “Magic Corner” has been designed in consultation with the neighborhood and it is being painted from 27th August to 31st August. The local community, including parents, children, local business owners, and other residents, will be joining artist ATMA to paint the mural at a community event organized for the 31st of August. The wall that has been selected for this public mural is a particularly busy corner on the way to The Ranelagh school. The artist has designed the mural in a way that the corner disappears and it is in one continuous floral pattern which is both an attempt to beautify the neighborhood and also promote nature and environmentalism. The design of the mural encourages slow and kind movement as the passerby go about their day. 

What makes this Mural so special is that carbon absorption paint is being used, which has been generously provided by Graphenstone Paint. It is the first paint manufacturer to adopt Switch2Zero, an initiative to promote sustainability and help achieve net zero carbon emissions. 

"I am particularly excited about this mural because of its proximity to the school. I believe it will enhance the experience for the kids as they go to school. With new traffic calming measures in place, we’re encouraging parents to walk, scoot, or cycle, so many will pass by this mural. It feels like a true celebration of sustainability and healthy living in our streets. We have worked hard to improve this area, and this mural is a wonderful next step for us."

Rosie Murdoch, Founding member, LoveE15 

“I hope this mural, like all the ones we create, brings people together. It's a wonderful way to create connections between people, as neighbors often start conversations when they pass by. Additionally, we're also communicating a message about environmental sustainability, which further enhances the mural's impact.”

ATMA, Artist 

"At Graphenstone, we're honored to contribute to this impactful mural with our innovative carbon-absorbing, mineral-based paint systems. By merging art with sustainability, we're not just beautifying the community but also making a tangible, positive impact on both the environment and air quality. Important projects like this demonstrate how creativity and eco-conscious solutions can harmoniously come together, to inspire and positively transform urban spaces. We're delighted to collaborate with Paint The Change on this very worthwhile endeavor."

Patrick Folkes, Director, Grapehnstone, UK

This is the second time PtC and LoveE15 have partnered together to create a public mural in the neighborhood. The first one is located at Bull Road and has been very successful at combating Fly Tipping. You can see the impact the mural has made in this video.

By Rochelle Lewis Geary

What do Parakeets, an East London road, and a mural all have in common? If you’re scratching your head, keep reading as I’m here to detail my experience working with Paint the Change and the consequential relation that I’ve grown to realise that these things have.

As a part of my Year 12 work experience, I spent this past week interning with Paint the Change. I started my time by planning and scripting a video structure, all in preparation to record an interview at one of Paint the Change’s most iconic community murals. Bull Road is home to a collaborative mural between Paint The Change and community collective Love E15. Depicting a colourful parakeet, the mural was created to deter individuals from fly-tipping, all of which I learned in conversation with Love E15 member -and History teacher at my school- Rebecca. 

The next day, upon our early arrival at the mural Rebecca toured us around the local area; sharing anecdotes about the work of Love E15, in addition to stories about newfound relationships with neighbours, highlighting how the local community managed to come together and start small in tackling a social issue heavy in their hearts. While we walked along the street, Rebecca shared intimate details about the neighbourhood, illustrating the closeness and depth of the relationships that this initiative had helped to form. As the conversation continued, Rebecca recounted how the community settled on using Parakeets for the mural. She described how they went back and forth on what the focus of the mural should be: with some even suggesting a bull (I wonder where the inspiration for that came from). After a short back and forth, they settled on Parakeets- inspired by the rumors of Jimi Hendrix supposedly releasing his Parakeets into the streets of London and how these said Parakeets can still be seen in a tree at the very start of Bull Street. 

As the interview unwrapped Rebecca detailed how the mural has truly worked to benefit the community. She described how dire an issue fly-tipping was, with heavy items like mattresses and television sets being discarded on the side of homes as well as individuals even going as far as driving onto the pavement to discard their waste. Rebecca further spoke about how much she enjoyed working with Paint the Change and how well the artist managed to tell the story of the community through the mural. Although she admitted that the issue has not been completely eradicated, Rebecca highlighted the mural's impact, as well as how, alongside some of Love E15’s other initiatives, a stark reduction in the frequency of fly-tipping has been observed. Additionally, Rebecca talked about how useful the mural was in portraying the value of the community, helping to strengthen and create a sense of shared pride in the neighborhood. 

Once the interview with Rebecca had concluded, it was time for me to shoot my parts of the video and put my script to use. As we filmed the introduction and ending for the video, I saw the technicalities of videography and the intricacies of camera work. Even through the multiple takes and rainfall, a sense of excitement filled me as I thought about the final product that would come from all of this work that we were doing. After getting some B-roll, we headed back to the office and started on the edit. As someone whose editing knowledge is limited to the confines of TikTok and CapCut at best, I found the complexities of Adobe to be a lot for me to comprehend at first glance. However, with some practice and observation, I managed to wrap my head around the basics of video editing. 

The knowledge and practical experience that I’ve gained from my time with Paint the Change has been enriching and has worked to consolidate my keen interest in Journalism. 

So, what do Parakeets, an East London road, and a mural have in common? They unite to represent the power of art in combating social issues at the heart of a community.

Youth Art For The Earth

We just kicked off our final workshop in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, France.

After the success of the mural "Respiration" in Montargis, YAFE is back with a new collaboration.

This time, we have artist  Elsa Martino working with Ninth Grade students of Joséphine Baker Middle School (93), to create a vibrant mural in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine. 

The project kicked off with three days of intensive workshops. Martino, alongside climate and environmental trainer Chloé Chesneau, led the sessions, blending creative activities with insightful discussions on climate change and sustainability. These workshops provided students with a platform to express their thoughts on environmental issues while contributing to the mural's design.

The students along with Martino are currently working on the Mural that they co-created during the workshop. They will be painting alongside the artist, adding their personal touches to this collective artwork.

The mural will be displayed at 54 Rue des Rosiers in Saint-Ouen, on one of the school's facades.

We celebrated Europe Day with the unveiling of our latest mural at the Secondary School for Design Maribor! 

On May 9, 2024, media and community gathered for the official launch of the mural created by street artist Fedja Šičarov, along with SŠOM students after a three day workshop on environmental sustainability. The mural served as a poignant reminder of humanity's historical and contemporary impact on the environment, encouraging reflection on sustainability and artistic expression among the youth.

This is the fourth  mural in a series of six which are being created in collaboration with young people and street artists in France, Serbia and Slovenia under our Youth Art for the Earth project.

You can read more about the opening ceremony here.

A new mural in Maribor, Slovenia, is nearly complete!

Students from the Secondary School for Design Maribor (SŠOM), in collaboration with artist Fedja Šičarov, are busy putting the final touches on the mural that will be displayed on a wall at their school.

Titled “Birds from the Island in Maribor,” the mural draws inspiration from Maribor Island, the largest river island in Slovenia, known for its diverse bird population.

The official unveiling of the mural is set for May 9th, which coincides with Europe Day, a day celebrating peace and unity in Europe.

For more pictures of the mural click here.

We are excited to launch the second phase of our Youth Art of the Earth project, following successful workshops and mural creations in Bor, Serbia; Montargis, France; and Ljubljana, Slovenia. Read more about it here.

We're now working in three new cities: Pančevo in Serbia, Maribor in Slovenia, and Saint-Ouen in France.

In Pančevo we collaborated with Technical School 23. Maj and street artist Kusha Chiks. During a three-day workshop, 16- to 17-year-old students discussed environmental issues in their city and how art can inspire public engagement. The mural will soon be painted on the school's wall.

In Maribor, Slovenia, a similar three-day workshop took place at the Secondary School for Design Maribor (SŠOM), culminating in the creation of a mural on the school building by artist Fedja Šičarov.

In Saint-Ouen, France, we'll collaborate with15 year old students of College Joséphine BAKER'. The workshop will start in June 2024 and conclude with creation of their mural painted by artist  Elsa Mastino.

Stay tuned for more updates on how we're using art to raise awareness about environmental issues across Europe.

Youth Art for the Earth is a collaboration of cultural organisations, across Europe, working on a programme to engage young people in articulating messages and co-creating artwork about social responsibility and environmental sustainability.

The project follows a successful Creative Europe project called Paint the Change which saw educational workshops and murals produced to discuss European Union values such as inclusion, diversity, environmental stewardship and social cohesion.

The focus of the new Youth Art for the Earth project is on older teenagers from disadvantaged and marginalised communities. Our objective is to help them find a voice and a sense of agency in tackling issues of environmental sustainability, by building their creative and critical thinking skills, and by engaging them with public art.

Four key tracks of work will help us to achieve this goal.

• Involving educators and street artists in piloting an innovative programme.

• Engaging up to 120 young participants in highly interactive workshops that build creative and critical thinking skills.

• Delivering six pieces of public art through a co-creative process for the benefit of local communities.

• Amplifying workshop discussions through film and digital media.

 New and environmentally conscious materials, technologies and techniques, such as carbon-absorbing paint, will be used whenever possible in this project.

Find out more here.

The One I Admire Portrait Competition Round 2

We are inviting all residents in Newham to join the second round of The One I Admire portrait competition.

Anyone in the borough can send in a portrait of an individual from Newham that they admire.

Ten of these portraits will be printed on to posters and exhibited close to Alice Billings House by Stratford town centre, and elsewhere in Newham. All other submissions will be shared on a dedicated website.

The subjects of the portraits can be family members, doctors and nurses, firefighters, local campaigners, athletes, or anyone else you regard as a role model, as long as they are from Newham.

The portraits can be drawings, paintings, and creative photographs.

Please make sure you also send us a short paragraph explaining why you have chosen that person in the portrait.

The deadline for portrait submissions is Monday the 2nd of July 2023.

See last year’s portraits here.

#PaintTheChange #PortraitCompetition #Competition #Newham #TheOneIAdmire #AlliceBillingsHouse #Stratford #london #eastlondon #NewhamAdmiration #CommunityArt #PortraitCompetition #CelebrateNewham #theoneiadmire

Public Art Helps Tackles Anti-Social Behaviour in Westferry, London

Streets of Growth and Tower Hamlets Homes tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB) through community projects and local engagement.

They asked Paint the Change to help residents of Birchfied Estate paint a mural for their communal garden in Westferry.

In an afternoon of painting, crafting, barbecuing and sharing, local residents, police, ASB officers and Streets of Growth young leaders were united in creating their new mural, with the help of street artist Atma.

We are proud to release the first ten winning portraits of the My Alice Billings House Portrait Project Competition “The One I Admire”

We recently invited all local residents to paint, draw or take photos of individuals they admire, those who have made the world a better place. This might be anyone from nurses, doctors, firefighters, teachers, social workers, friends, and any other role models.

We’ve received a fantastic array of entries and are excited to announce the first selection of images that will be put on display. Of the portraits submitted ten will be chosen to be printed on fliers and large posters and installed in the areas along the High Street and surrounding Alice Billings House. 

The My Alice Billings House Portrait Project celebrates the local heroes, diversity and creativity of Newham. The project marks the activation of Alice Billings House as a new complex of studios and public-facing events space, how art and culture will work to engage and give voice to local communities while creating a sense of interest, intrigue, engagement, and excitement that animates Stratford High Street.

This public artwork project by Paint the Change has been commissioned by Creative Land Trust, as part of their award from the Mayor of London’s High Streets for All Challenge.

Want to know more? Watch a series of interviews with the artists behind each portrait on our Vimeo 👇

Choose Courage - Bethnal Green Mural

A group of Tower Hamlets young people inspired by local hero, international boxer @RamlaAli, have launched a new permanent mural on the corner of Bethnal Green Road and Barnet Grove.

The workshops with young leaders were run by @kinsilleh @numbiarts who helped put their words into action by co-designing the mural with artist @atmastudio who then painted the mural.

Watch to find out more! 👀

A @numbiarts and @RichMixLondon project in partnership with @paintthechangeglobal. Supported by @towerhamletsnow and HM Government.

#ramlaali #atma #atmastudio #bethnalgreen #bethnalgreenroad #barnetgrove #eastlondon #shoreditch #towerhamlets #richmix #richmixlondon #numbiarts #kinsiabdulleh #mattdufour #paintthechange #paintthechangeglobal #streetart #mural #london #artasactivism #eastend #e1

Streets of Growth

Young people from @streets.of.growth took part in a @paintthechangeglobal art workshop where they discussed what peace meant to them, specifically in their local area and within their communities.

@atmastudio used the discussions and artworks from the workshop to design a community mural for St Andrew’s Wharf Youth Hub in Isle of Dogs, where the young participants joined him to paint the wall.

A mural launch event was held on the 1st of June where @the_peoplespeak led a community discussion with Streets of Growth mentors and young people, local police and councillors. The debate covered topics such as the mural’s slogan “Be the change you want to see in the world”, young people’s trust (or lack thereof) in police authorities, and gender inequality, among others.

🔎 Read more here: https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/News_events/2022/June-2022/New-mural-designed-by-young-people-expresses-hope-belonging-and-a-desire-for-change.aspx

#myends #towerhamlets #eastlondon #isleofdogs #standrewswharf #streetsofgrowth #paintthechange #atma #atmastudio #towerhamletsislandcommunitynetwork #icn #islandcommunitynetwork #mudchute #streetart #millwall #islandgardens #e14 #docklands #DLR #riverthames #mudchuteskatepark #docklandsfootballclub

Chestnut Grove Academy

⭐️💡 “I guess we’re trying to go from Ideas, to Words, to Images, to the Mural” - Mr. Gee 🌈☀️

✨ Our most recent workshop at Chestnut Grove Academy in Balham, London, touched on the struggle for equality, past, present and future.

✨ Students were encouraged to discuss past and present inequalities through art and poetry, and imagine a better and more equal future. 🖋🎨 

✨ Their words, collages and drawings informed the design of a large-scale triptych artwork painted by @atmastudio, that now hangs in their school hallway to spread their message across the institution. 

✨ Big thanks to @mrgeepoet for leading the poetry section of the workshop, and @atmastudio for leading the art section. 💜

“Equality is how you would treat you…You should treat people you don’t know the same.” ✊🏼✊🏿✊🏾

#murals #muralpaintings #equality #future #thefutureisbright #youthart #schoolart #struggleforequality #inequality 

Niko Bie - Health Studio Music Video

🎶 Gonna get that vaccine, gonna live out my dreams! 🎶

We are proud to present our new @healthstudioeastafrica music video with Kenyan star musicians @Mayonde and @stonee_jiwe featuring brilliant @kidsdanceconnect young dancers.

Shot in Nairobi, Kenya, the music video marked the start of World Immunisation Week from 24th to 30th of April.

Health Studio is an ongoing anti-Covid disinformation project which Paint the Change collaborates with to produce Covid and Vaccine awareness murals in East Africa. 

Visit our Health Studio page to learn more about the campaign.

Let’s trust the science🔬 professionals🧑🏽‍🎓 artists🎭 and our brains🧠 and hearts🫀 and get vaccinated! 💉

@who @undp @moh_kenya @healthstudioeastafrica @paintthechangeglobal

#ɢᴇᴛᴠᴀᴄᴄɪɴᴀᴛᴇᴅ #ᴠᴀᴄᴄɪɴᴇssᴀᴠᴇʟɪᴠᴇs #patachanjokaachonjo #staysafe #stayvigilant #music #video #art #dance

Love E15: Fighting Fly-Tipping With Public Art

Love E15 is a community-building collective in West Ham, London, that runs neighbourhood activities to encourage local residents’ sense of ownership and pride in their E15 area.

One local issue the group tackles is fly-tipping – Love E15 uses art and creativity to “beautify” local fly-tipping “hot-spots” in the hope this will prevent rubbish dumping.

In this spirit, Paint the Change joined the group to collaborate on a new community mural, designed with the Love E15 group and painted by Atma, bringing a load of colour and fun to Bull Road!

We also held a public painting session open to the community, where each participant wrote their name on one of the wall’s bricks before painting it over to finish the mural.

Special thanks to @newhamlondon @newhamstreetart @sewellsflorist and sponsor ERND Building Services Ltd for their support.

#lovelondone15 #lovee15 #westham #plaistow #Stratford #Community #neighbours #neighbourhood #eastlondon #newham #peoplepowerproject #communityassemblies #mural #streetart #parakeets

Fighting Covid Disinformation in Kenya and Uganda

Health Studio East Africa and Paint the Change have collaborated once again to create three murals warning against Covid Disinformation in Nakuru (Kenya) and Busano (Uganda). Each mural was preceded by a workshop with the local communities, where participants discussed what myths and fake news stories they’d heard surrounding Covid-19. Health advisors from Pollicy Uganda and Open Society East Africa, in Uganda and Kenya respectively, proceeded to unpack these myths and inform the residents on the realities of the disease and the proper Covid prevention measures to follow. Artists Wamala Kyeyune Joseph in Uganda and Phunk Bantu, Newton Ndue, Lyriqal Quing, and Major Arts in Kenya created the street art murals based on these discussions.

Busano, Uganda

“I believe art is supposed to record the times we are in so that the future can understand what was really going on in this particular time.” Wamala Kyeyune Joseph – Artist 🎨

“For sure with the Busano, just talking about Covid-19 prevention is not enough. But when they design these pictures that they can see, they can believe. But also encouraging these meetings with the different stakeholders, meeting with local leaders, giving them the information on Covid-19 and how it affects them.” – Lunyolo Betty, Health Inspector, Mbale Local Government

Nakuru, Kenya

"There is a young person, a female, wearing a mask and flowers. The flowers signify peace, a message of hope" — Newton Ndue

"The mural will make the people feel included," says Elizabeth Wangui, Gilgil community library. "They took part in the workshop and included people from the community."

Fighting Covid19 disinformation with music and street art in Kenya

Happy New Year 🎉 with love, art and music from Kenya!

A new exciting and hopeful music video from the talented Kenyan musician Moji Shortbabaa @MojiShortbabaa warns us about the dangers of misinformation and why we must protect ourselves from dangerous lies. Featuring murals by artist Msale @musaisa supported by @paintthechangeglobal and @healthstudioeastafrica

“Street artists have a power most people have not experienced” — @musaisa

Thank you to everyone involved in the project, including @MojiShortbabaa, @musaisa and all the school children and community from the Kabiro Human Development Centre in Kawangware,

If you're in the neighbourhood, go check the mural out at the Kabiro Community Centre in Karangware Nairobi, #Kenya.

Oaklands School for Diversity

In November, Paint the Change hosted an art and poetry workshop at Oaklands School in Tower Hamlets, London, to encourage students from years 7 to 13 to explore themes of diversity and inclusion. Contemporary visual artist Pinky Tesfay and poet Tania Nwachukwu animated the sessions, helping students create their own visual representations of diversity through drawing and painting, and to write about their cultural and national heritage through poetry.

A brief inspired by the students’ work will be given to London-based street artist Zabou to paint a mural on the school building in January 2022. 

Body & Soul “Home Again”

Paint the Change held a month of workshops at the Body & Soul charity in London, UK, in November 2021, culminating in a beautiful mural of a kintsugi vase full of flowers. Meet Hollie Smith, the charity’s Head of Creative Partnerships, to learn about a special project that addressed trauma and community through art. The below interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What does Body & Soul do?

We transform trauma with love. What we're trying to do is ensure that the trauma that's happened in someone's past doesn't define who they become. We work with all ages, from babies through to older adults, recognising that it's never too late to access support and that the whole family can be affected by one individual’s traumatic experience.

We provide a holistic, person-centered approach to care. There's lots of different things that members can access from practical support with housing and immigration needs to 1:1 therapeutic interventions.

We also provide different workshops that are designed to build resilience skills; so that the safety people feel here, they can start to feel in the outside world, and be able to navigate their lives without the heavy load of the trauma that they're carrying. Everything we do is rooted in community and compassion.

How does art help Body & Soul in its work?

We really believe in the power of the arts in the healing process and ensuring that our members have access to that. We know that the arts have a crucial role to play in fostering the strength, solidarity, and hope that we all need in order to heal.

Every arts project that I produce unites leading artists in a collaborative process with our community to create ambitious and affirming work. Creativity not only provides opportunity for connection and expression, but it can ignite change, renewal, and recovery.

For this project the aim was for our members to feel a sense of ownership of space back in this building as we haven't been in the physical space in the same way since the pandemic. So, it was really about members reclaiming the space as their own. It also coincided with our 25th birthday; so it was a celebration of the community, everyone who has walked through our doors, and everyone who is yet to walk through our doors, making this community what it is.

Matt [Matt “ATMA” Dufour, Paint the Change artist] and Efe [Efe Ezekiel, Paint the Change youth mentor]] delivered workshops on a Tuesday evening on a Thursday evening over the course of a month and on the fourth week Matt painted the beautiful mural. Over sixty members of all ages were involved in those workshops that explored different art forms and created discussion around what this community means to them and gave space to share their stories.

How does the new mural contribute to Body & Soul’s community?

When Matt and I first met, we had a conversation around the Japanese art form of kintsugi, something we've always felt is a good representation of what we do at Body & Soul. [Kintsugi is the art of reassembling broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, creating a new and more beautiful object, and treating breakage and repair as part of life rather than something to disguise.]

You can walk in the door feeling quite broken and fragmented and the sense of collective healing that can happen here can be really beautiful.

The vase represents the body of the community and the flowers represent the soul. The flowers, the lilies represent a sense of rebirth that happens to people when they come to Body & Soul. Each colour on the vase represents the 4 groups that Matt & Efe worked with, a real honouring of their time together. The creation of the mural has been a perfect way for the community to connect with their home again, reclaim the space as their own and see their stories and experiences honoured in a tangible way.

Award-winning street artist ATMA combined the portraits and objets in one gigantic mural collating over 100 pieces of artwork.

Halima Khanom, portrait by Nigel R Glasgow, adapted by ATMA

“My family are originally from Bangladesh – my Mum and Dad arrived in the ’60s and ’70s – and my Mum would very proudly wear a saree in all her years she lived here. I think it’s a very visual representation of the Bangladeshi community in the local area. I just love the saree, I think there’s a universality about it, it suits everyone.”

“Halima’s portrait has been created by repeating and multiplying patterns found in sarees, her chosen object. She brought a pale pink saree to the community workshop, so I opted for this as the principal colour.”

Mr Gee, portrait, adapted by ATMA

“I’m reciting a poem on stage in front of a live crowd. Doing what I love to do and loving every minute of it!”

“Mr Gee is a man of words, so I couldn’t resist to compose his portrait out of hundreds of letter forms, creating an abstract texture so that only words ‘visual’ interpretations could create.”

Suresh Singh, portrait, adapted by ATMA

“Mum was affectionate and warm. She was a large woman who was very cuddly and I would always be hugging her. As the youngest boy, I spent all my time with her. She washed my hair every morning in the kitchen and every evening in front of the fire. It was a ritual – undoing the plait, combing the hair forward and washing it. Sometimes she would wash it with yoghurt, then massage mustard oil all the way.”  – an excerpt from Suresh Singh: Author of A Modest Living: Memoirs of a Cockney Sikh, published by Spitalfields Life.

“Such a beautiful story from a few decades ago deserved to be hand drawn.”

Mr Jones, portrait by Nigel R Glasgow, adapted by ATMA

We met and photographer Mr Jones during OnRedchurch’s Street Fest, where he was running a free bicycle repair stand next to ours.

“Mr Jones has used tools and spanners for decades, so I wanted to use repetition of the object to create his portrait. A little bit like paying homage to each time he picks a spanner to fix a bike.”

Linda Ouazar, couscousière

“As participant in our family workshops, Linda drew a stunning couscousière, traditional cooking tool from North Africa (Algeria in this case) to make couscous. Every woman would decorate their own couscousière and pass it to the next generation.”

Vic Roberts, portrait by Nigel R Glasgow, adapted by ATMA

“Well, I’ve always loved a cowboy hat – since I was a kid. But it’s not the kind of hat you can wear in London without looking like a tit. But the one I’m pictured in, for the mural is an Open Road. Now that’s a hat that can be worn in London. It gets a lot of compliments. It can also be worn hiking, but if I do I do tend to get mistaken for a park ranger. I was asked about trails, bears and mountain lions countless times while we were hiking in Glacier National Park. The Open Road turned out to be quite the ranger hat in Victoria Park too, my wife and I volunteered to work at the park at the beginning of lock down, while we were at home in London.”

Yusra, self portrait

“I see myself as a leader for positive change, someone who is hopeful and will use their creativity to benefit others.”

Zahra, self portrait

“Each part of my portrait represents different things about my personality. For example my hair represents curiosity while my mouth relates to my zesty personality.”

Dominic, photograph, adapted by ATMA

“Bethnal Green is our home and two of the best days of our lives were here at home in Bethnal Green; getting civil partnered surrounded by animals at Spitalfields Farm and adopting the two rescue hounds pictured (Denise and Claudine). I’ve lived here for over 20 years and I’m constantly amazed and inspired by the diverse, creative and supportive community that I live amongst.”

Relevant links: Rich Mix, OnRedchurch, ATMA, Nige Pics

Paint the Change @ Redchurch Street Fest

This summer, Paint the Change and Rich Mix hosted a couple stalls at Redchurch Street Fest in Shoreditch. Street Fest is a yearly festival curated by OnRedchurch to encourage community spirit between local organisation, residents, landlords and businesses.

In collaboration with Rich Mix, we prepared to create a massive giant community mural to celebrate and welcome back Tower Hamlet’s local communities as we came out of lockdown. We encouraged residents to think about an object that is meaningful to them, that represents their identity and cultural or family heritage.

Halima Khanom, a local heritage expert, brought her knowledge of Tower Hamlet’s cultural history to our stall, sharing archival imagery and objects with the public.

We also partnered with London-based photographer Nigel R Glasgow to take portraits of the fest goers.

The portraits and stories of Tower Hamlets residents were collected by street artist ATMA to use in the design of the Rich Mix community mural, set to go up on the cultural centre’s facade a month later.

Dreaming of the future through art: Paint the Change goes to Bow School

Paint the Change teamed up with street artist Hanna Benihoud and youth mentor Efe Ezekiel to host a new youth workshop at Bow School in East London – and to produce our latest London mural. Year 7 and Year 8 students – ages 11 to 13 – explored their dreams for life and career aspirations over five two-hour sessions that featured group discussions and artistic activities to develop powers of self-expression.

Maziar Bahari, the founder of Paint the Change, said it was "an “honour and a pleasure” to produce the workshops and mural with Bow School. “The students are thoughtful and enthusiastic and the teachers have an inspiring sense of mission. It’s a privilege for Paint the Change to become a part of the Bow community. We’re so happy that these workshops and murals have helped the students at Bow to visualise not only their own futures but the futures they want for their communities.”

Street artist Benihoud led the workshop in their creative activities. Participants were encouraged to use art to make mind maps to visualise their futures and dream jobs, using drawing, stencils and 3D models. Group discussions on how to positively contribute to local communities, how to cultivate creative spaces, as well as major social issues such as climate change and inequality, fed into a collective vision for a mural that was later installed at Bow School. Benihoud then used the ideas and contributions of the workshop to produce the mural alongside the participants.

“Using the disciplines of art and creativity, the students were able to expand their minds, their talents, and their visions of their future, which was fantastic and an inspiration,” said Ezekiel, who has worked with Paint the Change since 2020 to run workshops for dozens of young people across London. The workshop also featured a portrait-drawing exercise in which participants drew portraits of themselves, and each other, “so that they could have a beautiful understanding of how identity is important,” she added.

Anna Rawles, Bow School’s Art and Design Technology teacher, said that the workshops gave participants “a chance to realise some of the things that maybe they’d kept in their heads, talk about them and talk to adults as well as their peers about where they see their futures,” adding that it was a “wonderful experience” to work with Paint the Change. And Hoda Mohamud, the school’s Careers & Transitions Coordinator, said the students had “gained numerous skills, from soft skills to creativity, they learnt about public speaking, they had to be able to present their ideas … it was good to have those conversations starting now to help them have a focus when they start the new academic year.”