Graffiti for Change

Woodstock Union High School will soon have graffiti. However, no need to worry, this art is sanctioned. The “graffiti” stencils will have a social justice focus and are part of a project with students from the Innovation Lab.

The project started in Scotland and students in a class there asked WUHS students to join them in their efforts to raise awareness about social justice issues.

“I want the students to be able to look at the problem and communicate about it,” Max Vanatta, the Nuvu lab director, says.

The WUHS students in the course recently had an online video conference with the Scotland students about Social Stencils. The Woodstock students have been working on stencils around the areas of Bullying, Social Media Bullying, Mental Health Issues, Sexual Assault, and Obesity.

Some of the statistics that were covered in the conference and likely to be addressed with stencils are facts such as 1 in 4 women are sexually assaulted and Scotland is 22% obese compared to the USA at 40%. There was also a focus on cyberbullying and bullying in general as well as social media and privacy.

“It was not about a grade, it was about how you share information with someone else,” Max says about the project.

One stencil created by Jackson Ziegler depicts Vermont and a huge lock. He says he is trying to show that there needs to be security when it comes to social media and your online footprint. Another stencil created by Grace Ward is a W with derogatory words that female students have been called.

There are a great variety of stencils representing different issues that are happening not only in the small town of Woodstock, Vermont but all around the world.

Keep your eyes open to see when this important graffiti appears on our walls.