Leap Housing and Support, City of Lincoln Council
Project Length: Six months
Theme: Murals
Age group: Primary school - adult
Lincoln charity Leap Housing and Support contacted me to co-ordinate a large scale mural project to regenerate the Sincil Bank area of Lincoln.
The original plan for this workshop was for me to work with the young people at Leap, on designs for a mural on the Virgin Media utility boxes on the street outside their residence and offices. But the community at large got so enthusiastic about it that we received funding to expand the project to 27 boxes throughout the Sincil Bank area. The boxes became a trail around the area, and a map was produced which included information about each of the designs and creators. The first box on the trail featured a mobile phone design, and the 'apps' were hidden on the subsequent boxes, a little game to play on your walking tour!
During the first stage, I spend some time with the young people at Leap coming up with ideas for their mural, which I took away and worked up into a final design. Meanwhile, messages were sent to community groups to see who would be interested in designing their own mural. We had interest from two local primary schools, one secondary school, two community groups and a few individuals. When the designs came in, I selected the most suitable and did some work to ensure they fit the format and size of the boxes.
This box forms the start of the trail, each of the apps can be found hidden on the other boxes around Sincil Bank. Each of the apps describes a link to Lincolnshire.
One of three murals on Scorer Street, designed by myself and depicting several folk legends of Lincolnshire.
One of two murals designed and painted by students from North Kesteven School, on Portland Street.
This box forms the start of the trail, each of the apps can be found hidden on the other boxes around Sincil Bank. Each of the apps describes a link to Lincolnshire.
The painting took place during a few days spread over a month, with each school or group getting involved to help paint their design. The feedback we received on the street while working, and by social media afterwards, was overwhelmingly positive, with people generally commenting on how much it did to improve the look of one of the more deprived areas of Lincoln city centre.
Click the gallery to see photos from the project.
Media coverage: https://thelincolnite.co.uk/2018/07/heres-why-people-are-painting-lincoln-media-boxes/