How to Plan a COMMUNITY-ENGAGEMENT Mural Without Adding to Your To-Do List
Planning a community-engagement mural might sound like a daunting task, but with the right approach, it can be a rewarding and stress-free experience. At Raw Initiative, we work directly with community to make the process as seamless as possible, so you can focus on what matters.
Step 1: Define Your Vision
Think about what you want the mural to achieve. Is it about fostering creativity, promoting values, or brightening a specific space? Involving community members, or students and staff in this initial stage helps to generate enthusiasm and ensures the mural resonates with your school community.
Step 2: Find a Local, Hands-On Muralist
When searching for an artist, it’s essential to work with someone who’s genuinely invested in your project. We pride ourselves on being hands-on, ensuring that every aspect of the mural—from design to completion—is done collaboratively and transparently. It’s actually really important to us that we’re not a faceless agency outsourcing work but part of your community, bringing our experience and integrity into every project.
That being said, if our style isn’t right, or you want to work with someone hyper-local, be sure to have. team meeting and define what you’re looking for in an artist before you commit to one. Lot’s of people think it’s all about what the finished product looks like, but really it’s so much more about what your artist is like to work with from Day 1.
Step 3: Collaborate on the Design
Once you’ve chosen an artist, collaboration is key. We like to involve students and staff through workshops or brainstorming sessions, making sure everyone has a voice in the creative process. For us, these workshops don’t just shape the mural—they empower students and build a communal sense of pride in the final artwork.
If your chosen artist doesn’t have workshop facilitation skills, it’s common to run these workshops separately and hand over the community engagement content as inspiration for the mural. This process is fine, as long as the artist has enough time during their design process to get to know the community, or/and the placement location.
It’s important that the final design resonates with your community, and feels harmonious within that specific space. If you feel like your community slogan has been slapped onto something generic, ask them to try again, or provide you with a few sketch ideas to discuss with your team before committing to final designs.
Step 4: Let the Experts Handle the Logistics
From gaining approvals to sourcing materials, ensuring compliance with regulations, staying on schedule, and respecting your budget is key to a happy mural project. Our premium hands-on service is reflected in the cost, as we provide dedicated management and expert execution, eliminating the need for third-party coordination or navigating red tape.
However, if we’re not the ones handling your project, seek our the Placemaking department in your local council, or the handyman in your local school. Adhering to public space regulations is particularly important when painting off school property. It’s important that your artist - and the general public (including students and teachers) are our of harms way when it comes to painting murals. It seems trivial, but insurance, and Workplace Health and Safety is the backbone of any successful space activation project.
Step 5: Watch Your Vision Come to Life
The mural painting process is where the magic happens. Students and community members can participate when it aligns with the project, creating a truly collaborative masterpiece. To make the most out of this process line up the local media, or media department of your school to document the project (or both!). These are feel good news stories that absolutely must be shared. Our projects have been featured on major news channels, in local press and radio. Our participants have also met various politicians and local hero’s who’ve come to open projects. It’s a treat for everyone and really helps the youth participants feel like they’ve achieved something to be proud of.
Why Choose Raw Initiative?
Integrity and Transparency: We work directly with each project—no middlemen, street art agencies or hidden fees.
Local Expertise: Research plays a huge part of any project of ours, if we’re not engaging directly with your community for the design inspiration then you betcha we’re off to find the local historian or Elder. An important part of servicing a nationwide market is having the social skills to connect with everyone the same - whether your regional, urban, young, old, first generation or First Nation. We’re people people. We’re story tellers. Above all, we’re curious, and that feeds into why each site-specific project is successful.
Raising Marginalised Voices: We prioritise collaboration, giving young people, seniors, migrants, First Nations and differently abled a sense of pride and ownership.
Professional Results: Over 10 years of mural experience ensures stunning, long-lasting artwork.
Get Started Today
If you’re ready to plan a community-engagement mural without the stress, Raw Initiative is here to help. Our team brings integrity, transparency, and a passion for community-focused art to every project.