FLAP 201: Design in Action
Course Overview
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A lot has happened in the past few months.
If you have asked yourself:
How can I bring people together during this time through the power of art + design?
How can I make an artistic social impact online?
Then join the VACS Design Course: Design in Action!
Through the lens of COVID-19, artists around the world showed us how they have been digesting the current culture we live in. This pandemic has divided and isolated many. Both physically but also economically and socially as well. Although a lot has been said, filmed, and photographed, let your voice be heard! Be a part of a local project that can help foster awareness and social change through the power of art and design.
This is a free community driven initiative that helps build youth engagement in the arts. Young people will learn how to facilitate social change through graphic art, detailed in a two week course. In this summer program, targeted at youth ages 15-18, young people will learn to cultivate their Graphic Design and Art skills as well as:
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Build leadership and agency skills
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Connect with other young artistic minds
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Get involved in social issues and help form creative solutions
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Build an artistic community and network
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Learn industry standard tech skills that can be applied to professional settings
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Build confidence and esteem for the arts as communicative medium
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A certificate of completion in the course
Build your own social canvas and create a digital legacy with VACS.
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Course Outline
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Present:
We will be looking into social justice from times past and comparing it to the present day. Through examining the history of the BLM movement, we will partake in a series of exercises in racial disparity through the practice of language and art.
Practice:
This will be an exploration into rewiring mental pathways surrounding the word black. We will create a web of positive words to associate with blackness using a medium of your choice. You can use a pen, pencil, paint, or even use tech. With the words created in the web, we will create a collage with accompanying imagery. Students will then ruminate on this exercise by writing a page reflection.
Produce:
This project will help challenge ingrained biases surrounding attitudes towards things and people associated with the color black. With this exercise students will be able to deeply reflect on social prejudices from a historical and personal perspective.The students are encouraged to take this exercise and extend it towards their family members and neighbours. Have a discussion with your parents/peers about what you have learned.