As part of this year’s festival, Nuart Aberdeen teamed up with Portuguese curator Lara Seixo Rodrigues to present a series of workshops aimed at the over 65’s. Lara is the founder of the world renowned LATA 65 project. A unique groundbreaking street art project for seniors that has been emulated the world over.
Lara is also the curator for Wool Street Art Festival, a Portugese street art festival established in 2011 and a long time friend of the Nuart Family.
At the core of Nuart is a desire to see city walls hosting ground breaking street art but also to see communities engaged as active participants and creators, not just passive observers. Through her own work in Lisbon, Lara discovered there was a much more diverse and wide ranging group of citizens appreciating street art and decided to offer them the same opportunities normally reserved for younger participants. The result is the ‘LATA 65′ project and series of workshops – Young at Art.
Graffiti and street art have both often served to deepen the rift of misunderstanding between young and old, LATA 65 works to destroy old stereotypes and turn senior citizens into genuine street artists by providing them with spray cans, masks and gloves and hands on tutorials before finding them free spots in the city to tag up and paint!
Lara says: “My favourite thing about doing LATA 65 is watching the huge transformation that each senior goes through. It’s always amazing having the possibility, of just after a few small challenges, watching the elderly group just like any bunch of kids having fun in front of a wall, where there’s no pain, no traumas, and without any definition of what is right or wrong for a person of their age.”
The workshop comes with a tongue in cheek warning for seniors, “It’s best,” says Seixo Rodrigues, “to use a nickname when you write on the walls, just so the police don’t find you afterwards”
Application forms for LATA 65 – Young at Art can be picked up, filled in and posted into an application box from a pick-up point near the food court area on the Upper Mall of the Bon Accord Centre. Electronic versions can be requested by emailing [email protected]
The deadline for all applications is 29 March 2019. Participants will be selected at random and notified by 2 April 2019.
More information about the project on facebook.
