All's well at home - building family ties, a social poster
The General School of Fine Arts from Wodzisław Śląski was awarded a grant in the 2nd edition of the "Wena" Grant Program competition, for an educational and artistic project entitled „All’s well at home - building family ties, a social poster".
The main objectives of the project were to draw attention to proper rules of communication within the family, deepen knowledge on methods of communication between family members, and prevent marginalization and social exclusion of persons from dysfunctional families.
A team of students created a poster social campaign, raising the issue of mutual relations within the family. In addition to a strong message and excellent execution, the project was of great educational value since it taught the participants various image processing techniques. To create the posters, the students drew sketches using painting and graphic techniques (linocut, monotype), and then digitally processed their works. As planned, the participants started the project with an inspiring lecture on the Polish poster school and completed a short course on the basics of graphic software. During their creative work, they experimented with graphic design and spent many hours discussing, correcting, and fine-tuning their poster works.
The temporary exhibition can be toured in the city library. Previously, the posters could be seen at the city's main train station, where the young artists showed their works to a wide audience. The very creation of the exhibition was of great educational value, the students gained skills of organization and realization of their own assumptions from beginning to end. The pandemic made the implementation of the project much more difficult but at the same time it became a whole new challenge, a different experience in looking at the topic of relations, it gave the artists and the audience an impulse into taking a broader look at the issue of closeness. The teacher in charge of the project hopes that in the new school year the students will be able to take the posters to the municipal district court building so that their display will not only help improve its aesthetics but above all so that their message will appeal to and draw the attention of visitors.
The project had a strong impact on the participants; in conversations with students, there are reflections on the importance of technology as a tool that interferes with close and honest contacts with peers and parents, which is what their final poster works are about. Through participation in the project, the school was equipped with a plotter, outdoor easels, and photograms. These materials will allow future generations of students to easily organize similar events and plein-air painting workshops. While working on the project, many new contacts and ideas for cooperation with various institutions in the Wodzisław District emerged in the minds of the students. The students saw a real impact of their actions on the local community and on their artistic future. For the first time, many of them had the opportunity to show their works to a wider audience, which certainly encouraged them to continue working in this direction. The students also learned how to work with certain criteria and within a given theme, they learned graphic programs and how to prepare works for print.
As the organizers of the competition, we are full of admiration for its excellent implementation in the difficult times of the pandemic, especially for the idea of holding the exhibition at the railway station. In addition, a great advantage of cooperation in the implementation of the grant was the timeliness and effectiveness of implementation, thanks to the transition of participants to remote working entirely. Almost all planned activities were carried out with great success. We congratulate the students, organizers, and partners and thank them for this wise and valuable social and artistic initiative!
Małgorzata Bednarczuk-Bukowska - teacher leading the project - teaches drawing, painting, and graphic design at the school
Apolonia Reclik
Gloria Białończyk
Jakub Piotrkowski
Julia Kotula1
Julia Kotula2
Kaja Materzok
Karolina Maciołek
Klaudia Adamczyk
Oliwia Fligier
