St Mike's Mural

A summer long programme of workshops allowed children and teenagers of St Mike's Youth Project to design and paint a new mural for their centre.

Following the success of the Extraordinary Orchard Park Parade, St Mike's Youth Centre wanted to continue the enthusiasm from 2017's City of Culture into the new year with an inclusive creative project.  The challenge was to redesign the existing mural, deemed tired and too childish by members of the centre, with fresh artwork that appealed to the varying tastes of both children and teenagers. Located in the centre of the community, the new design also had to be sensitive to the wider audience.

The Process

Over the course of a summer, casual workshops were held during existing youth sessions. The children learnt about street artists and voted on their favourite artistic styles, designs and colour palettes before developing their own ideas through drawing and collage. They reflected on the area by discussing their favourite Orchard Park places and what about St Mike’s made them proud, resulting in a colourful and contemporary illustration which carries a positive message to share to the community.

Anyone from the centre could contribute their thoughts and designs, whilst a select number of teenagers worked with Lydia directly in a week-long painting process - learning to measure, map-out, mask and paint a multi-coloured mural in the public eye. Even Little Tikes, the under 7’s group of the centre, got involved in painting - proving it’s never too young to pick up a roller!