Public Art as a Form of Participation

In the last two class periods, students learned about the Battle of Cable Street by listening to and reading first-hand testimonies of individuals who recalled demonstrating against fascist Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts when they attempted to march into London’s East End on 4th October 1936. In this lesson, students will explore a related story in Cable Street’s history that started in the 1970s when artist Dave Binnington began researching and creating a 3,500 square foot mural on the side of St. Georges Town Hall commemorating the historic Battle of Cable Street and the area’s immigration story. Although Binnington conceived of the mural’s initial design, he abandoned the project in 1982 after it was vandalised with racist slogans, and it was finished in 1983 only to be vandalised again on other occasions in the early 1990s. To introduce this lesson about the artist’s battle to create and preserve the Cable Street mural, students will reflect on the public street art and murals that they may have seen in their own neighbourhoods and schools before doing a close analysis of a large section of the Cable Street mural. They will then read about the mural’s turbulent history, as well as the racism and violence that the East End’s Bengali community has faced since the 1970s and consider how it connects to current racial tension and heightened Islamophobia. The lesson ends with a discussion about the role of art in politics and how art can serve as a means of taking action in the face of injustice.

Before teaching this lesson, please review the following information to help guide your preparation process.

Activity 1 Reflect on Local Wall Art and Murals

• Students will respond in their journals to the following prompt:

  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?

• Ask students to share their ideas in a Think, Pair, Share and then as a class, make a list of local murals and public art, discussing, if possible, their purpose and how the artists achieve this purpose.

Activity 2 Analyse the Cable Street Mural

• 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 and pass out the Crop It tools and copies of the image to each pair. Explain to students the image is a section of the mural, and that they will be using their tools to help them look closely at small segments of the mural. You might select from the following prompts to help students analyse and discuss the image with their partners.

• 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.

• Project the image A Segment of the Cable Street Mural and have students share the parts of the mural that raise questions for them and see if the class can help them find answers. 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 parts of this projected image using their Crop It tools or move on to the next activity.

Activity 3 Discuss the Role of Art as Memorials and Political Statements

• 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 Antidote to the Far Right’s Poison”: The Battle for Cable Street’s Mural.
• Then, in small groups or as a class, discuss the following questions:

  • 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?
  • 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?

Activity 4 Visualise a Mural for Your Local Community

• Ask students to respond to the following prompt in their journals. You might give them time to brainstorm or sketch in advance, or make this reflection a larger project that involves researching their communities to learn more about the history and where they might place their mural.

  Imagine 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.