While debates rage on about the future of Toronto’s sidewalk-styled chesterfields and such, a Halifax art student is taking the question of community design to a whole new level by installing chalkboards for public use. Brendan Dunlop, the Toronto-raised, currently Hali-based artist who developed the project, says he hopes that the Community Chalkboards “can act as a sort of personal catalyst for people to start thinking about…direct involvement within urban settings.” Each chalkboard is accompanied by the necessary tools (chalk and an eraser) and use of the boards is, of course, free.
I don’t know if this form of ephemeral, eraseable graffiti template is the answer to street art’s usual classification as a “blight upon the community”, but for anyone lapsing nostalgic about the “simplicity” of their schooldays, it offers at least a whiff of chalk dust and grade three aura to the bipedal off-to-cubicle commute. Powerpoint don’t smell nearly half as good.
In case you’re interested, Dunlop’s looking for collaborators to help bring the project to other cities (Sydney, Australia, and Providence, Rhode Island, are already on the list as potential scribbling spots, but Dunlop says he can use more). Click here to find out more about Community Chalkboards and to contact him directly.
Image from Community Chalkboard Project
One comment
This is not a “new” invention. While hitching though the Carribean island of Tobago a couple years – I noticed that the small communities in the North have chalkboards near the community football fields/public squares – this was to inform people of public meetings, cricket/football games, traffic etc…
I like the idea in an urban city. It would be interesting to see what form develops…
peace+
jam