Campaigner and street artist begin works on mural in honour of Coventry's industrial history

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Campaigner and street artist begin works on mural in honour of Coventry's industrial history

Postby dutchman » Thu Sep 13, 2018 9:43 pm

A Coventry litter campaigner and a street artist have begun to transform one of the city’s dullest and dirtiest walkways

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Emma Aspinall and her team of schoolchildren have begun creating a 10-metre long mural dedicated to the city’s industrial history.

Emma is a community organiser and an official Keep Britain Tidy litter ambassador for Coventry.

She has been clearing up fly-tipping and rubbish in a walkway connecting Gosford Park Primary School and Humber Avenue near the city centre.

She wants to discourage anyone else from dropping litter or leaving waste by creating the mural and making the alley more attractive.

The street art will depict Coventry’s workers and their vital role in the car industry and the city’s post-war reconstruction.

The first design is a welder and the second will be a grinder – giving the wall the look of an assembly line.

After an appeal to raise £2,000 to cover the cost of the artwork and the clean-up, the transformation began last week.

She is being helped by professional street artist Michael Bachelor – also known as Dynamick – and urban culture group, Reflection Coventry.

Dynamick is known for his bold, colourful and thought-provoking designs and he will create the mural with the help of Gosford Park Primary School children.

The walkway is flanked on each side by industrial units and dull concrete walls which will act as the blank canvas.

Emma said: “I walk the alleyway to take my children to school. It was like a rubbish tip. Plagued with litter and fly tipping. Along with anti-social behaviour.

“Last year I organised a community led clean up involving the school, councillors, local police and the local community.

“This led to people involved taking pride in the alleyway. Now it mainly stays much cleaner.

“I want to get a mural painted and hopefully give the alleyway a complete transformation for all the residents and school children.”

She still needs to raise £300 to complete the project and will be applying to UK City of Culture Trust’s Get Ready Fund – which awards grants to local culture groups.

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Re: Campaigner and street artist begin works on mural in honour of Coventry's industrial history

Postby dutchman » Thu Oct 11, 2018 10:36 pm

Anger as Coventry history street art mural designed by school kids defaced

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A STREET art mural dedicated to Coventry’s history and designed with the help of schoolchildren has been defaced prompting widespread anger.

Litter campaigner Emma Aspinall said she was ‘gutted’ after seeing the damage done by vandals and fly-tippers near her public artwork project.

She and her team of schoolchildren were close to completing the transformation of one of the city’s dullest and dirtiest walkways.

She told us: “Well obviously we have been looking after the area and keeping it clean.

“And on Tuesday I went down there and it was unbelievable how much rubbish was there.

“There were duvets, sky remotes, DVDs, even glue guns – everything you can imagine.

“Me and the caretaker from the school cleaned it because we knew it was like a green light and you would have everybody dumping their rubbish over there.

“Then the next day I went again and that’s when I saw someone had spray painted,” Emma continued.

“It is sad. It hasn’t actually destroyed any of the work we’ve done but it has slowed us down because we will need to fix that part."

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Re: Campaigner and street artist begin works on mural in honour of Coventry's industrial history

Postby dutchman » Tue Mar 05, 2019 11:16 pm

Coventry street art mural will be finished despite 'mindless vandalism', campaigner vows

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A LITTER campaigner is vowing to keep up the fight to finish her street art mural after more fly-tipping and ‘mindless vandalism.’

Emma Aspinall said it was ‘soul-destroying’ to see fresh damage inflicted by vandals and fly-tippers at her public artwork project.

She is hoping to get a protective coating for the mural, which is dedicated to Coventry’s history and designed with the help of schoolchildren.

But her plans have now been scuppered after fresh graffiti and scrawl appeared on one of the designs days before the expensive coating was to be applied.

She is optimistic about completing the transformation of what she regards as one of the city’s dullest and dirtiest walkways.

This is despite several setbacks including another part of the wall being knocked down by a nearby business and suffering vandalism attacks on two occasions.

Ms Aspinall said: “I am just not getting much luck am I?

“On April 6 I am doing a community clean up in the walkway again. The plan was for the artist to put protective coating on because of the better weather and it absorbing better. But now it has been written on – we are very disappointed.

“I was hoping that we would have it completed now because it is a lot of hard work doing the clean-up and doing the painting.

“Ultimately its for the community and everybody who lives there.

“So I would like the mural to be done and stay nice, and perhaps get some help from the companies nearby to let us do more murals.”

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