The Add Colour campaign is Sk8 for Gr8’s latest effort to teach South African youth entrepreneurial skills through art.
Founded by South African art director Alison Harris, the mentoring initiative pairs up talented designers with kids from disadvantaged backgrounds to design skateboard decks inspired by each child. After running a number of these workshops in Cape Town, the initiative is expanding their efforts by collaborating with the City of Cape Town and publishing company Imagnary House.
Their pilot project will kick off on 17 July in Atlantis, a historically disadvantaged area established by the Apartheid regime as part of the infamous Group Areas Act.
According to Harris’ crowdfunding page, the pilot project will start off with a collaborative mural created by Liebet Jooste of Liebetland: A Colouring Book.
Jooste will create a mural outline inspired by both the children in Atlantis and her imaginative world of Liebetland in an effort to uplift both the area and the youth’s knowledge of illustration and design. The children will add colour and make it come alive.
The Sk8 for Gr8 team plan to use this activity to teach design thinking and entrepreneurial skills.
