Andrew Lindsay

Building upon existing traditions of mural art in Southern Africa, artist and educator Andrew Lindsay is launching a mural art project to strengthen community development, team-building, and the participants' self-esteem.

Andrew uses murals as an educational tool and catalyst for social change. His project will build upon traditional wall-painting methods developed by indigenous South African cultures -- most notably the Ndeble and Pedi -- and seeks to make art and its creations more accessible to the general populace.

The project utilizes murals to engage communities in the social and physical improvement of their environment. The production process is itself a developmental exercise which requires not only creative talent but also fundraising, communication and negotiating skills. In addition, murals, a visual language, can reach a broad audience, including both the multi-lingual and illiterate.

Through murals, communities can identify and address the crucial issues affecting them. The creative process empowers communities to work together to channel ideas constructively on virtually any topic. Producing a mural encourages community participation and provokes reflection about an issue.

In South Africa, where many communities have been alienated and dehumanized through apartheid, stimulating a community to produce a mural typically promotes civic pride and self respect, empowering people to examine issues and educate others. Murals can also provide symbols of hope, of justice, liberty and peace. It can also empower and help to restore a sense of pride to any of the many communities that have been demeaned by reaffirming very visibly their culture and identity.

If South Africa is not to slip into a Lebanese or Yugoslav abyss, it needs to do everything it can to help communities counteract violence and intimidation and regain a sense of self respect.

Apartheid and a lack of planning have created ugly, sprawling slums with monotonous boxlike housing. The urban centers are notorious for their high walls and barbed wire. This kind of hostile physical atmosphere only deepens the country's social ills, from alienation to intolerance. Although visual art can be used to alleviate this problem, it is not accessible to most South Africans. Most black schools do not offer it as a subject, and art is perceived by most people as belonging to the
elite classes.

Because there are no galleries in the black townships, artists are dislocated from their work, discouraging residents from joining the profession and denying communities access to native art and artists. Artists in the townships must sell their work through galleries, normally situated in city centers. From the galleries it moves even further away, typically to private collections.

Andrew works with street children and donated art supplies to create murals in busy areas of the cities, where they will be seen by thousands of passersby. He chooses themes appropriate to the given site and designs them to both promote discussion and leave positive images behind.Dependent on a group effort, his mural projects also foster team spirit and the children's creativity.

By collaborating with existing social change agencies, Andrew hopes to gain easier access to funds and to the communities with which they work. His plan also involves helping the authorities in charge of public spaces learn how they can improve these spaces and how to handle the problems that will inevitably spring up.

The project will also promote mural to existing art institutions through workshops, lectures and slide shows. It will also document the process of mural making in video or photographic form for use as an educational and promotional tool.

Eventually, Andrew aims to establish an institution with trustees drawn from practitioners of mural art and also including people from throughout the Southern Africa. This institute would have exchange programs and workshops around the country and would lobby for the development of mural art and ensure that it forms part of the art curriculum in community centers and art schools. Andrew also plans to establish a resource center where members can hold workshops and lectures and collect resource material.

During the 1970's, Andrew formed a racially-mixed alternative circle of artists to lobby for gallery space. Not only were they successful at the time, but the members of this group are now some of the leading artists in South Africa.

Andrew has worked for SACHED, a national education organization, and taught at one of the most progressive alternative primary schools in the country, where he helped design educational materials. He has also been a political cartoonist.

The mural project is the culmination of Andrew's history as both an artist and a social activist. He has already initiated a number of mural projects near his home community, beginning with an AIDS mural done by street children on a high profile wall located on a busy street. With sponsorship from an AIDS organization and donated paint, the mural was painted during AIDS Awareness Week in order have the greatest impact. It excited ample curiosity and wide participation. The mural has also been playing an educational role on the street.

"As well as beautifying the environment, the children were learning about AIDS, and while they were painting, they were being acknowledged on the street level -- thereby gaining self respect, and seeing their environment in a less hostile way," explains Andrew.