An Extraordinary Art Class

Dulwich has always stood out as representing the true creative spirit of London through the fine arts, theatre, music, and even graffiti. Now, that artistic spirit has spread to Dulwich College where, this past week, over fifty events, lectures, field trips, and classroom takeovers by various artists and students have hijacked campus, bringing an environment of creative fun to everyone working and studying there.

On Wednesday, I had the privilege of visiting the school and seeing for myself how this immersive, communal venture was taking place. Arriving around noon, I visited a foam-strewn art room where Upper School boys were working with and speaking to Christiaan Nagel, a street artist whose neon-bright, plastic mushrooms can be seen all over the world from London to New York City to Berlin to Cape Town, South Africa, the artist’s native country. I would be lying if I didn’t say a wave of jealousy washed over me; my own youthful art experiences never involved classes taught by street artists, let alone ones as successful as Nagel. When I walked in, Nagel was speaking to the boys who sat among the foam covered the tables, lined with trash bags, sculpting out what would eventually be the stems and caps of mushrooms.

As the foam dried, the boys took the opportunity to ask Nagel about his inspiration and life as a street art. “My mushrooms all about imagination and new ideas. Not enough people now are willing to be childlike, and that’s where innovation comes from” he answered, going on to explain the more practical aspects. Nagel described how street artists now can make a career out of their art entirely, unfolding how his mushrooms have allowed him a recognizability that make his work desirable. He brought up, as an example, the vast commercial success of Shepard Fairey’s incredibly popular OBEY brand. Through this discussion, the world of the street artist was brought into the classroom; I could see the excitement the students got out of this visit myself.

Besides this classroom hijack, I had the opportunity of exploring a few other projects set up for Creative Dulwich including a makeshift clay studio set up in the South Cloister where 1600 clay faces were being made, one by every student and then some. These sculptures would eventually be moved to a converted old storage space, now half art gallery, half rehearsal room for display. Continuing in the theme of street art, the day also held a lunch time lecture by Dulwich OnView’s own Ingrid Beazley on her project enlisting street artists, including Nagel, to recreate paintings from the Dulwich Picture Gallery as street art throughout South London.

Making the mushrooms is a few step process. Balls of varying sizes are used to sculpt the cap, and wooden posts create the base for the stem. These must be covered in foam which must them dry and harden before they are fitted together. The final, and perhaps most fun step judged by the enthusiasm of the Dulwich College students, is spray-painting the mushrooms an entire spectrum of colors. Finally, the class went out to the Clump in the center of the College’s sports field to mount the mushrooms using wooden spikes pre-prepared by Nagel. The entire process left the campus with a feeling of creative whimsy and the students with a feeling of excitement and satisfaction that probably stayed with them.

For more information about Dulwich College and any upcoming events, visit them at www.dulwich.org.uk.