Chula Art Town: Developing communities near and far through Art

Outreach and Engagement

From the success of Chulalongkorn University to revive the old communities like “Suanluang-Samyan-Siam Square” that surround the University by incorporating the vibrant colors of graffiti art to bring the area back to life with the project “Chula Art Town” by the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts (FAA), who introduced leading graffiti artists to work in hand with Chula Alumni and current students in painting the story of the surrounding communities onto buildings all over the area. This transformed unutilised corners into eye-catching scenes by recycling local waste into artwork that led to this area becoming a new tourist attraction in the heart of Bangkok that hipsters and social media junkies can’t miss out on. The role of developing the surrounding communities through Chulalongkorn Universities art has continued to shine brighter in the year 2020. From many activities, we focus on building cooperation with the community through various projects. These projects were created with the participation and collaboration of local communities and have helped develop society, create jobs, and generate a new source of income amounting to millions of baht per year, given back to the community through art. For example, 1) Workshops for more than 50 local motorcycle taxi drivers and local tuk-tuk drivers to become local tour guides at the Faculty’s Multipurpose Gallery (ART4C) located in the community. 2) An outdoor classroom for children with Down syndrome using an art display wall and specially designed braille to enable the visually impaired in accessing the artwork. 3) Cooperation development between Art and Culture in the Pathum wan District and Ban Krua Community has led to a construction of navigation map “pathum wan Art Routes (PARs)” to explore the mix of art and culture of contemporary art, including community’s way of life and culturally diverse food. As a result, it is not surprising that there are positive feedbacks from neighboring communities to the development of the community through art by Chula, making art a true part of the community.

In addition, Chula Art Town has connected offline art to the online world. Each artwork has specific QR code that shows the location of the piece on the virtual map as well as a video clip of the artist describing their artwork through smart phones, all it takes is to scan the QR Code on various printed media to enhance the viewing experience. Even though the global pandemic has caused everything to be closed, Chula Art Town continues to operate on a digital platform for people around the world to indulge in via “Google Art & Culture” augmented reality (AR). As 1 of the 5 important exhibitions that passed an evaluation process to be exhibited on this augmented reality platform, this allows the project to be considered a borderless and limitless exhibition. With over 3,700 online visitors, it is clear that Chulalongkorn University is now ready to motivate society near and far through art, to spark inspiration, and to also heal people of society.