Living Community Murals

2022

ZEST’s project 'Living Community Murals' took place in Ropewalk Community Garden over the course of 2022.

The aims of the project were to provide creative opportunities, increase knowledge and awareness of growing your own food and healthy eating, and to increase community pride, achieved through a series of free, artist-led workshops and live events and the co-creation of a large-scale functional artwork for the garden.

In the initial sessions, local residents brainstormed what artwork the garden might benefit from and began to create their own designs for an artwork. Participants used pens and paper and other provided art materials to draw their ideas. It was decided that a planter, decorated with community-made artworks, for growing edible herbs and vegetables, would serve a useful function in the garden as well as be visually appealing and add to the collaborative atmosphere of the garden. There was then a series of workshops for local residents and families to create and glaze clay tiles, decorated with renditions of plants, animals and personal messages. These were then fired and stored, ready to be incorporated into the final artwork.

Technicians from ZEST built the planter on site, taking inspirations from the community’s initial ideas and designs, and mounted the finished tiles all over the structure and the wall behind to create an attractive and meaningful display. With the planter completed, ZEST Collective guided local children in filling the planter with soil and planting a variety of herbs, fruits, and vegetables. Along the way, they shared knowledge about the planting process, fostering an understanding of gardening, healthy living, and sustainability.

Finally, there was a celebration event hosted in the garden with more art activities, conversations, and a free plant-based meal cooked by a local resident, where the residents and families could see their final artworks incorporated on the planter and take pride in their achievements and community.

The images below show an exhibition of Living Community Murals project’s outcomes and impacts, which was displayed in K6 Gallery. As a result of this project, ZEST wish to deliver more workshops and events in the local community, strengthening connections and relationships made during the project. ZEST Collective would like to thank the project’s participants for their enthusiastic involvement and beautiful artworks.

This project was delivered with support from Arts Council England and in collaboration with the Ropewalk Garden Committee.