Ciudad Mural – SDGs 16 and 17
Description
Colectivo Tomate is an organization created in Puebla (Mexico) in 2004, its mission is to inspire the action for social transformation. Conformed by multidisciplinary professionals from different places, with the conviction of building collectively. In 2009 CT created the Ciudad Mural project, which aims to generate an encounter and connection experience between people through dialogue and art. The project impacts the public space through the collective creation of murals, in order to activate social participation and community empowerment. This is done from a non-violent communication perspective and a sense of social co-responsibility, based on methods of transrational and elicitive understanding.
Ciudad Mural is a social, artistic and community project that seeks to tell local stories and show local identity, supported by social processes that result in the elaboration of collective murals. The process of creating these murals transforms public spaces with the inspiration and art from the communities themselves, achieving integration, teamwork, a sense of belonging and activating the coexistence of its inhabitants.
In other words, its ultimate goal is to unite, strengthen and transform communities, ensuring that collective dynamics are carried out under the principles of trust generation, citizen participation, nonviolent communication and collective creation. This represents an opportunity to recognize and reconnect the inhabitants of the community who are in conditions of violence and/or segregation, as well as having other particular local problems. Each of these places has an opportunity to resignify the public space, generating a sense of responsibility and care, and enhancing local culture and local memory.
The Ciudad Mural project pursues that communities use their capacities to organize and transform their environment, through participatory artistic activities. Its ultimate goal is to generate empowered communities with self-managing capacity to transform their environment and quality of life, based on collective trust.
Through the generation of alliances with the government, the private sector and society, Ciudad Mural uses art and color as a tool for the promotion of peace and the restoration of community life. It has also become a platform for urban artists that, from their experience in Ciudad Mural, are empowered to work in a more social perspective and participative approach. This artists’ network is a potential platform for the long-term impact on neighborhoods and the generation of new projects nationwide.
Different key players with which CT has worked have been a fundamental part of each project: the local community, NGOs, academia, government, artists and members of CT.
Also, starting in 2016, a fundamental partnership was established with PPG Comex (the largest paint manufacturer and distributor of paints and waterproofing products in Mexico), through its social program "Mexico Bien Hecho", an initiative that aims to improve people's quality of life, dignify and embellish spaces through art and color. It is MBH who embrace the Colectivo Tomate and the Ciudad Mural project, allowing the expansion of the project and its financial sustainability.
The implementation process has the following steps: • Project planning (territory of implementation, schemes of financing and collaboration with stakeholders and local actors) • Territorial and community diagnosis (to develop operational strategies of community immersion, trust generation and involvement of actors.) • Call and selection of artists • Community consensus for the intervention • Training, habilitation and immersion as bases for intervention • Collective creation of murals • Closure of the community project that communicates the transformation carried out • Documentation of project results The exploration of the community starts with an invitation for all people to participate, which results in an encounter and dialogue. Houses are visited, the community is recognized, the streets are crossed and the local characteristics are investigated. An operations center is established and the 'key actors' of the community are identified to collaborate with the project. Simultaneously, the call for artists is made, with an emphasis on local artists. During the project, the artists, the Colectivo and the community live in the community, generating strong bonds of friendship and union. A participatory diagnosis is made through which the most important needs of the community are detected, from their own words, considering the ideas they have to solve them. There are also convivial meetings, neighborhood meetings and workshops that seek to strengthen the capacities of people in the community, as well as restore trust between neighbors. Elicit methods of conflict transformation are put into practice according to the theory of John Paul Lederach. Where the facilitator is a catalyst that highlights, brings to the front and existing communal knowledge related to conflicts between individuals, groups and communities. The methodology is structured under the structure of non-violence, achieving the active participation of the people interested in the transformation. Before beginning to paint, the artists are assigned a family. They interview and live with this family to generate the sketch together. After the approval of the family, a participatory feedback session is held among the artists. Also, at this time workshops are held with the community and the artists, in order to invite them to share their talents. In the collective mural painting, the community, volunteers and more people are invited to paint together. Finally, a closing ceremony is held with the artists and people who have participated in the organization of the project. The whole community is invited to a celebration and a tour through all the murals, where each one is explained. At the end of the tour, the food prepared by the community is shared. In 2018-2019 the Ciudad Mural project was subjected to an impact assessment study was carried out on the project. Using a sample of 8 cities, this mixed evaluation with quantitative and qualitative instruments considered the perspective of all stakeholders: local actors, community, concessionary, etc. It was carried out with technical rigor and endorsed by a group of 3 important institutions: Tec de Monterrey (University), Camino Colectivo and Adeco (NGOs). This stage of learning and continuous improvement helped to strengthen the management of the program and its results.
Based on methods of transrational and elicitive understanding, the work methodology of the Colectivo Tomate seeks to generate encounter and connection between people, strengthen collective trust and transform the local environment. In each community new lessons have been found, stories represented, identities shown and voices raised.
Since the beginning of their partnership, Comex and Colectivo Tomate have implemented 14 projects throughout the country. In these projects, about 765 murals were painted with the participation of almost 500 national and international artists and more than 800 volunteers. It is estimated that Ciudad Mural, within the framework of Mexico Bien Hecho (in the cities of Culiacán, Tuxtla, La Paz, Villahermosa, Monterrey, Zacatecas and Saltillo), has had an impact on approximately 5099 direct beneficiaries (in which they consider the members of the families that live in the houses where the murals were made, key actors of the community that participated in the project, artists, volunteers and participants in the workshops) and 7810 indirect beneficiaries.
The results of the impact assessment show important results in 6 social dimensions: commitment / participation; management and empowerment capacity; collective trust; local ownership; belonging to the community; perception of the community (positive externalities of the intervention.
Some of the immediate results are the consolidation of trust among neighbors, strengthening of social relations within the community, increased sense of belonging to the community, strengthened local participation and social commitment, sense of local appropriation of the project, relation of trust with government agencies and institutions involved, establishment of process of local dialogue and consensus, creation of a collective memory of the community.
Likewise, the interventions of Ciudad Mural have also served to give visibility to neighborhoods and communities, transform stigmas and attract attention and investment for other projects and future interventions, economic reactivation and tourist attraction. At the end of the CM there is an increase in visits to the community.
The local context in which each Ciudad Mural is developed, is a factor that influences and, to some extent, determines the results generated. In general, the perception of change in the intervened communities is significant and Ciudad Mural is considered a milestone that transcends the history of communities, being a watershed at both an individual and community level. As a consequence, the social capital generated in each CM has the potential to be strengthened, promoting peace and social change in the intervened communities.
First of all, the involvement of the local community with the artists and with the people in general who participate in the project was the most important condition to the success of Ciudad Mural. In this process, an important level of collective trust is achieved, since beneficiaries and artists show enthusiasm and commitment to the project. This social participation also strengthens the label Ciudad Mural which gives it high legitimacy.
Another factor of success is that Ciudad Mural was the provision of visibility to the communities where it has intervened, through the social process and communication that is generated. This visibility increases the sense of belonging and pride of the community, allowing local engagement and fostering the sustainability of the project.
The professional platform for urban artists, created by Ciudad Mural, was also an element that enabled the project to succeed. CM has consolidates itself as an aspirational project for artists, due to the social and artistic experience it offers them.
Finally, the partnership between CT and Comex was fundamental for the growth and replicability of the project. This strategic partner complements CT’s capabilities and expertise, upscaling the project in two dimensions: strong insertion at the national scale and deepen social capital generated locally.
In terms of effectiveness, one of the key aspects of the project is to invite different actors, both civil society, the community and even the government, to participate and co-invest. Also, the contributions of each of the members of the Colectivo is very important, since we believe that we all have something to contribute and that it is important to share with others.
In financial terms, the project started with smaller sponsorships or through fundraising. This way of carrying out the projects was not sustainable for the organization. After having the first project with Comex as our strategic partner, we managed to understand the importance of having partnerships that understand the project, support it and finance it. It is also important to mention that local governments are already starting to put their own financial resources to develop the project,
In terms of sustainability, the project has managed to be sustainable over time through collective creation. The most important issue is to integrate and empower the community, generating social capital, which is achieved through dialogues, workshops and during the painting of the murals. What makes the project last is that the murals tell the stories of the people and the collective creation.
Ciudad Mural Monterrey is a good example of this process, since the project has generated local social capital and strong social participation. Through the creation of community committees supporting the follow up of the activities, the community achieved an increased degree of participation, commitment and trust. strengthened in the passage of time after the conclusion of the project.
The murals are the final product created by the local community, which means that people take care about the space in which they live after the project. If people begin to value the space in which they live and to appropriate it, they will soon be generating actions around for their benefit. Evaluation studies show empiric evidence that from the appropriation of the project and the social participation achieved, the community signifies the value of the public space and is responsible for its care, maintenance and conservation.
In terms of extending the practice more widely or encouraging its adoption in other contexts, the alliance with Comex continues to be each time more solid and there are proposals to take the Ciudad Mural project to different regions of the country. In 2019, the new edition of the project in the Campeche region (southeast of Mexico) is already being developed, with the painting of 37 murals that will impact 176 direct beneficiaries and 2,640 indirect beneficiaries.
Finally it is also important to highlight the methodological achievements that impact the replicability of the project: their implementation methodology is already systematized and they have their own evaluation and monitoring system as well.
As part of its trajectory, the Colectivo Tomate has become an academic reference, through its contribution in various spaces and universities, holding workshops and participating in forums, conferences, meetings, etc. As well as for awards and recognitions that it has received (Strategic Recognition Quorum Year One Award for Social Impact, the Nomination "One of the 20 Real Heroes of Mexico" by The Mexico Report and recently, the TV Azteca Award "For a Puebla with values").
The learning involved in operating a project of high magnitude and community impact in areas segregated by a history of violence and social marginalization, which can have medium and long-term effects due to the participation and involvement of local actors organized under the same purpose. Also, when the community processes involve an articulation between institutions, it generates a social process that reflects on their strengths and weaknesses, and capitalizes on learning. This process allows the maturation of local initiatives that solve conflicts in the community.
The project has also become a catalyzing agent of deep social changes in the intervened community, such as the mediation and community organization in Monterrey; the cultural corridors in La Paz and Chiapas; the reconnection with the historic centers in Saltillo, Zacatecas and Culiacan; and the general increase in the perception of security.
Finally, the experience of CT in the local communities has stimulated its constant re-discovery and re-signification. From the experience with Ciudad Mural, CT has developed two other projects: Mayuscula, that commemorates and pays homage to the powerful legacy of the legends and founding myths of cities through large-scale murals in the city of Puebla; and later the Colosal project where a majestic mural was made on 300 houses in the community of Cerro de la Campana covering 25,000 m2 of paint.
Vainilla Magazine https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2240409262873449
ArchDaily https://www.archdaily.mx/mx/891624/colectivo-tomate-lo-mas-importante-d…
Indigo https://www.reporteindigo.com/opinion/violencia-coyi-comex/
Picnic http://revistapicnic.com/ciudad-mural-mayuscula/
Sin Embargo https://www.sinembargo.mx/05-03-2017/3164577
Sección Amarilla https://blog.seccionamarilla.com.mx/colectivo-tomate-ciudad-mural-en-xa…
Milenio https://www.milenio.com/opinion/varios-autores/corredor-fronterizo/grac…
Agencia EFE https://www.efe.com/efe/america/mexico/el-arte-transforma-barrio-mexica…
Radio Buap http://radiobuap.com/2016/06/ciudad-mural-colores-que-transforman-la-vi…
Animal Político https://www.animalpolitico.com/2018/08/murales-callejeros-colinas-inseg…
Video https://drive.google.com/a/colectivotomate.com/file/d/1C4zRFhweK51NSmrx…
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| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 17.14 | Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development |
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Guillermo Milano Castillo, Executive Director