Suz Hu•4 years ago Create 2-part mural to:
Brighten a council housing estate
Make a side alley feel safer
Reduce anti-social behaviour
Continue a wayfinding trail to Eric Road playground and sports court [“ERP&SC”], and The UP Garden, to encourage exercise and socialisation.
ERP&SC are in good condition but underused, due to lack of awareness and/or a perception that the surrounding multi-storey blocks are unsafe to walk through.Last year, I created a wayfinding street art trail to ERP&SC comprising pavement decals, focussing between Wild Goose café and Little Diamonds nursery where there is more people traffic. It has been positively received: children interact with them daily, with increased usage of ERP&SC.However, if the trail continued down the alley of Little Diamonds and along the wall facing ERP&SC, the wayfinding trail would be much clearer. This would increase visits to ERP&SC as well as The UP Garden, a community garden intended to encourage inter-generational socialisation, eco-sustainability and upcycling (launching later this year).Further, studies show that anti-social behaviour like littering and graffiti are reduced when an area seems valued, often frequented, and reflects the local community. Here, the murals would be the same designs as the pavement decals, which are based on Kente fabric to reflect the local African-Caribbean communities.The street signs and pavement decals from last year's project:UPDATE: 20 September 2022Thanks for voting through my project!Here is my proposed project timeline:
25 January 2022 - permissions sought for the nursery wall
9 June 2022 - permissions sought for the playground wall
1-30 September 2022 - LB Newham permissions to be obtained; artists/contractors to be identified and quotes obtained; commissioning of artist/contractor
1 October-30 November 2022 - wall mural designs and placement to be finalised
1 December 2022-31 January 2023 - if LB Newham wishes to incorporate community involvement, this period would be allocated for that
1-28 February 2023 - wall murals to be painted.
I have reached out to various local artists to discuss the project, to identify who might be the best fit.I expected to have indicative permissions for the mural walls confirmed by the end of August 2022, but now that my project has been voted through by the people of Newham, hopefully they will be granted shortly!Location of murals (pink, nursery wall; yellow, playground wall; blue, back-up option wall):Playground wall (drab, covered in algae):Nursery wall (narrow, with poorly-covered graffiti):UPDATE: 10 November 2022Permissions were granted for the playground mural by LB Newham (who own the wall) and Swan HA (who manage the wall on its behalf) on 29 September and 10 October respectively.However, permissions from LB Newham and the tenant remain outstanding for the nursery wall although I am assured that the issue should be resolved shortly.In light of these delays, the amended timeline is now as follows:
1 October-10 November 2022 - artists/contractors identified and quotes obtained; commissioned artist chosen
10 October 2022 - permissions obtained for the playground wall
ASAP - permissions to be obtained for the nursery wall
11-30 November 2022 - wall mural designs and placement to be finalised
1 December 2022-31 January 2023 - if LB Newham wishes to incorporate community involvement, this period would be allocated for organising that
1-28 February 2023 - wall murals to be painted.
The artist I have commissioned is Antonietta Torsiello. Her award-winning designs which draw on her Newham roots and Jamaican heritage made her the ideal candidate for this project. I’m excited to work with her, and showcase her talent on such a large canvas!Antonietta Torsiello with her designed products:UPDATE: 8 March 2023As of 5 December 2022, it looked like the outstanding permissions for the nursery wall were no longer going to be granted, and I therefore sought and obtained permissions for a different wall as a back-up option (see updated image of mural locations, further above).However, in mid-February 2023 I was assured that the permissions had been granted orally and simply required formalising in writing. These were expected by 28 February and eventually provided on 8 March.In light of the permission delays, the amended timeline is now as follows:
1 October-10 November 2022 - artists/contractors identified and quotes obtained; commissioned artist chosen
10 October - permissions obtained for the playground wall
11 February - 6 March 2023 - wall mural designs and placement finalised
8 March - written permissions provided for the nursery wall
8-13 March - materials sourced
14-26 March - playground wall mural installed
8-14 April - nursery wall mural installed
22 April - anti-graffiti coating applied.
The artist Antonietta and I agreed that she would not commence design work until we knew exactly which walls would be involved, so as not to waste the time and effort of us and others involved with the playground mural by having to backtrack on the design work due to potentially late input on the nursery mural. We are therefore aiming to deliver a 6-month project in 6 weeks!Given the time pressures, the scheduled opportunity for formal community involvement has been forfeited. This is obviously disappointing, however: the murals are inspired by the pavement decals in last year’s project (https://newhamco-create.co.uk/en/ideas/signposts-and-trails-to-playgrounds-1, which had community input) and the African-Caribbean communities living on and around the estate; both last year's pavement decals and Antonietta's mural designs for this year's project have received lots of positive local support; and were voted through by the people of Newham (and those who voted for this project are likely to be mostly FGN ward residents). This project therefore remains inspired, conceived and supported by members of the local community.Playground wall mural - proposed design:Nursery wall mural - proposed design:UPDATE: 3 May 2023With the outstanding permissions finally in place, the artist Antonietta was able to start work on the playground mural on 14 March. Unfortunately, we had terrible luck with the weather and had half of our timeline rained off! Fortunately, I had built in some contingency time, flipped the schedule to concentrate on the nursery wall mural because that had specific time constraints, and also managed to gather volunteers from our community-minded local residents and GoodGym Newham, whilst Antonietta brought in volunteers from the wonderful Forest Gate Women’s Institute.The nursery wall mural was finished on 3 May 2023, and has received lots of praise both from the local community and online.We are on schedule to deliver the playground mural by the final deadline of 31 May, and the final update will cover the journey of its delivery.Nursery wall mural – GoodGym volunteers scrubbing and preparing it:Nursery wall mural – Antonietta and a local resident volunteer painting the background:Nursery wall mural – Antonietta and a young local resident volunteer (also an alumnus of Little Diamonds nursery) painting the design:Nursery wall mural – Antonietta painting the detail:Nursery wall mural – a Forest Gate Women’s Institute volunteer painting the detail:UPDATE: 15 June 2023The playground wall mural was finished on 23 May, a week before the predicted deadline. Due to a mishap with the anti-graffiti coating, both murals finally received their coating by 5 June.To provide context for the pavement decals and murals, and for the wayfinding street art trail concept as a whole, I had designed explanatory panels with input from Antonietta and the council’s Communications department several weeks prior. Due to rebranding Community Assemblies to People Powered Places, there was a significant delay in receiving the updated logos so the panel designs could be finalised.We chose to have these panels made from aluminium dibond which is light, thin, hard-wearing, easy to wipe clean and also cost effective. They were collected on 5 June, and the council’s contractors installed the panels on 15 June signalling the completed delivery of this project.Since the murals started being painted, we have noted and heard anecdotally that ERP&SC and The UP Garden nearby have had more visitors which we hope is at least partly due to them being easier to find. The side alley looks much more welcoming and the wall running alongside the playground and sports court looks much more cheery. Both signify that this is a family-friendly area, and will hopefully reduce anti-social behaviour like vandalism and littering (although a bin would help!). Antonietta and I have received lots of positive feedback about the murals, and the trail in general, and we have even seen local residents and families stop to have photographs taken with the murals which clearly demonstrates that they are noteworthy and/or attractive enough to want to capture a visual memory with.Playground wall mural – Antonietta scrubbing and preparing it:Playground wall mural – Antonietta and a The UP Garden volunteer painting the background:Playground wall mural – GoodGym clearing the bottom of the wall of weeds:Playground wall mural – GoodGym volunteers painting the design:Playground wall mural – a local resident volunteer painting the design:Playground wall mural – Working Group visit (Councillor Rachel Tripp) painting the design:Playground wall mural – Antonietta and a The UP Garden volunteer painting the detail:Playground wall mural – completed!Playground wall mural - close-up of explanatory panels:Nursery wall mural – completed!Nursery wall mural - close-up of explanatory panels:
