Proud to be Deaf
We are delighted to have been working with children and young people aged 6-19 from the Deafness Resource Centre and Deaf artist Christopher Sacre to create a mural and garden ornaments for their beautiful community courtyard.
They began by creating bright wonky face self-portraits and discussing mural themes - nature and the importance of signing to the Deaf community. They painted pebbles and copied early mural sketches onto clear plastic acetates, which were projected onto the hall wall to finalise the final design. They painted canvases showing some of the barriers to the Deaf community and how proud they were to be Deaf. One boy wrote this on his canvas and agreed Proud to be Deaf would be a good project name.
Next, they crafted bunting, painted bird boxes, flowerpots, wooden hearts and pot labels. Everyone got a chance to paint the mural.
“The best things about the sessions were “learning more about others, being seen more for my art, made me excited to go out and I had a say”
— Participant
“Having a positive Deaf role model facilitating the sessions has made a huge impact. We saw the confidence in communicating grow in some young people and parents/ carers commented on the difference. It is always important for us to show our D/deaf children and young people that they can do anything and become anything they aspire too, and not to allow their deafness to hold them back. Seeing a working professional artist who was deaf and used sign language gave them the opportunity to understand that they can achieve their goals if they want to.”
— Partner