2005 Graffiti Initiative Journal
December 2005...
TS is officially incorporated in WI! We are on our way to becoming a 501c3 non-profit so that we may continue to receive grants and support to promote Hip Hop culture in a positive form. Check back in early 2006 for our calendar of events.
November 2005..
TS met with Summerfest, yes, Summerest! To discuss the possibilities of working at the festivals in 2006 to promote graffiti as an art form and to create murals on site as we did at Irish Fest 2005. Check back for more updates in early 2006...
October 2005...
Check out the article in UWM's Leader titled "Seeing Graffiti an Art in Milwaukee"
19th...TS founders, Sarah & Eliot, presented a workshop on Graffiti as an Art Form with over 50 7th grade students from West Side Academy School participating. We helped their English class wrap up their lesson on graffiti in the classroom. We thank the students and teachers for inviting us out!
7th & 8th...T.R.U.E. Skool was in Santa Fe, NM Oct 7th-8th for the EarthCare International Youth Sustainability Conference discussing how Hip Hop Culture plays a role in social justice. We discussed graffiti as an art form and received positive feedback from the youth about Hip Hop Culture and how it fits into the idea of community when discussing sustainability.
August 2005...
August 20th & 21st...
TS is working with Irish Fest and Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful. We were on site during Irish Fest August 20th & 21st from 12noon-4pm at the Summerfest grounds with an educational booth on graffiti as a positive and worldwide accepted art form, a public art display with live graffiti artists and activities on how to create graffiti stencils.
It was a big success! T.R.U.E. Skool was setup at the Greenwish Village with Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful. Youth and adults of all ages participated in the stencil workshop where they were able to make and paint a stencil on our Irish Fest 25th anniversary board. TS' graffiti artists created and handed off a beautiful Irish Flag on an 8ft. canvass to the President of Ireland (pictures coming soon) as well as the live demonstration of graffiti art.
August 13th...
TS attended Racine's YMCA "Urban Dialogue" Stop the Violence Block Party where we brought Milwaukee graffiti artists to paint during the daylong event.
July 2005...
TS is in discussions with the North Avenue Community Development Corporation to create murals between 35th-38th Street & North Ave to assist with the redevelopment in that community. Murals are expected to be completed by end of 2005 and Spring of 2006.
July 8th- August 5th...
TS worked in colloboration with The Union Art Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UAG) to present a piece in the exhibition The Milwaukee Divide from July 8th -August 5th... This exhibition tackles the issues of segregation and separation in Milwaukee through the mediums of video installation, photography, painting and sculpture. TS worked with youth from UWM's TRIO program from the Latino Community Center, Hmong American Friendship Association and Urban Undeground to complete the picture below that expressed the youth's thoughts on seperation and segregation in Milwaukee.
June 2005...
TS met with Art Axis to discuss the possibility of collaborating to create a mural project in Milwaukee where artists and youth work together to create and promote arts in our communities as a means to educate, empower and heal.
TS also met with Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful to discuss TS participating in this year's Irish Fest event in August.
TS is working with graffiti artists to paint commissioned pieces for businesses. We look forward to working with more business and organizations to allow graffiti artists to have a chance to paint legal walls and get paid inthe process!
We have begun by partnering on a project with Critial Mass Marketing. One of T.R.U.E. Skool's artists worked with other local graffiti artists to complete a piece for US Cellular. (see picture below)
US Cellular/Critical Masses Commissioned Ad
May 2005...
May 10...
Then TRUE SKOOL attended the City Arts Council Meeting to discuss the possibilities of a mural project with aerosol artists and youth.
May 9th...
T.R.U.E. Skool addressed the vandalism that occurred May 8th on the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Tagging of the Art Museum Clean up at the Milwaukee Art Museum 5.9.05 T.R.U.E. Skool talking with Channel 6 News
Read about what happened on jsonline.com... click here
Read T.R.U.E. Skool's press release
May 4th...
T.R.U.E. Skool partnered with Public Allies from January to May 2005 to organize a Panel Discussion on The Criminalization of Graffiti Art in Milwaukee, WI.
This event took place May 4th and was a huge success! We had over 200 people in attendace to listen, learn and discuss graffiti issues in Milwaukee.
Panelists included: Alderman and Chair fo the Anti-Graffiti Task Force Tony Zielinski, Professor of Visual Arts at UW-Milwaukee Richard Wearn, Program Inspector of the Anti-Graffiti Taskforce Sharon Blando, Owner of UPROC Matt Nowak, Youth Artist Rich Lopez, Veteran Aerosol Artist Mike Maier, and City of Milwaukee Municipal Judge Derek C. Mosley