George Floyd and Anti-Racist Street Art database facts for kids
The George Floyd and Anti-Racist Street Art database is like a free online art museum! It was started on June 5, 2020, by two professors, Dr. Todd Lawrence and Dr. Heather Shirey. They teach at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This amazing project began when Dr. Shirey saw a simple word, "mama," written as graffiti on a building. From that small start, it has grown into a huge collection. It now has over 2,000 pictures of street art from all over the world, even from places like Syria. A powerful mural from the Black Lives Matter art in Portland, Oregon, made by an artist named Xochilt Ruvalcaba, also helped inspire the project. This artwork helps people express strong feelings like sadness, pain, and anger.
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What is This Art Project About?
The main goal of this collection is to be very moving. Each piece of art is special to the community where it was created. These artworks help remember people who were hurt by police actions. They also aim to start important conversations about how police are held responsible for their actions. Each artwork in the database includes information about the artist, the story behind the art, and where it is located. Besides collecting photos, the project also tracks how some artworks change over time. Updated pictures show how a piece of art might look different at various times, capturing its temporary nature.
Why is This Art Important to Save?
This collection is meant to keep the artwork safe for future generations. Dr. Todd Lawrence, one of the creators, explained why it's so important. He said, "This database will help show people that there was a strong movement. It shows how anti-racist messages and art came from this movement." He added, "People might try to paint over or wash off the art. But we hope that because of our database, it can't be completely erased."
How Does the Database Get Its Art?
Most of the pictures in the database are collected through something called crowdsourcing. This means that everyday people, like you and me, send in photos they take. They upload or email pictures of street art they see. Dr. Todd Lawrence said, "We want every picture of every piece of art. It could be the smallest tag or a beautiful mural."
Urban Art Mapping: The Bigger Picture
The George Floyd and Anti-Racist Street Art archive is part of a larger effort called Urban Art Mapping. This group is made up of researchers from different backgrounds and ages. They are all based at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Urban Art Mapping started two important projects: the Covid-19 Street Art database (launched on March 16, 2020) and the George Floyd and Anti-Racist Street Art database (launched on June 5, 2020).
Dr. Heather Shirey, who is an art historian and one of the team's leaders, first had the idea to map street art related to the COVID-19 pandemic. She thought this art would be valuable for future learning and research. She launched the Covid-19 database, which has images from all over the world. This project then became a model for how they created the George Floyd and Anti-Racist Street Art database.
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