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Children and adults drawing on large boulders in bright sun, one of them on a ladder.

The Ideal Place Where? How? With whom do I want to live? Imagine the place you would like to live. Draw it together.

A shared mural of a possible city, shaped by children and their ideas about the natural world.

From the workshops

Short instructions, many answers, made together and shown as art. The artwork is all the answers side by side. How the works work

  • Children drawing on sheets spread over a patterned cloth by a river, with a camera operator behind them.
  • Hands drawing on paper on a patterned cloth, with sticks of chalk in a tray.
  • Two children drawing with chalk on a large rock face.
  • A large rock painted with an orange sun shape, with a person on a ladder nearby.
  • A group standing along the base of a drawn-on boulder, some of them waving.
  • Children carrying a long ladder past a rock covered with chalk drawings.
  • Two chalk-drawn boulders at dusk, with a building visible between them.

Photographs from the workshops of The Ideal Place.

How it happened

The Ideal Place began as The Ideal City Project, a daylong workshop at Ramana's Garden by the river in Rishikesh, India, in January 2011. Children imagined a better place to live, with care for the natural environment, and drew it together as one large mural.

The mural was temporary because of the materials used. A short stop-motion film records the process.

Run it anywhere

This workshop is open. Anyone can run it, with children anywhere in the world. The kit has the instructions, what you need and how it goes.

Get the kit

Where it happened

Photos from CRE8's own Flickr albums.

The Ideal Place

Photographs · 2011

  • A girl draws with chalk on a big rock by a river. The Ideal Place, 2011.
  • A boy climbs a wooden ladder up a boulder covered in chalk drawings and a painted sun. The Ideal Place, 2011.
  • A man holds a furry microphone to a girl wearing headphones. The Ideal Place, 2011.
  • Children draw with chalk on a long rock face beside a river. The Ideal Place, 2011.
All 12 photos from The Ideal Place
  • A rock face covered in white chalk drawings, children further along. The Ideal Place, 2011.
  • A boy climbs a painted boulder while another child stands on top. The Ideal Place, 2011.
  • Children stand and climb across painted boulders on a sandy riverbank. The Ideal Place, 2011.
  • Children pose along the ledges of a big painted rock. The Ideal Place, 2011.
  • A group of children and young adults pose with arms wide in front of a chalk-covered rock. The Ideal Place, 2011.
  • A woman in a red scarf paints on a rock covered in chalk lines and red stars. The Ideal Place, 2011.
  • Two large boulders on white sand, covered in pink, red and yellow paintings. The Ideal Place, 2011.
  • Children carry a long bamboo pole past a painted rock face. The Ideal Place, 2011.

Flickr album: “The Ideal City Project”

Film

The Ideal Place

0:56
Watch on VimeoA short stop-motion film of the mural being made.