Artist On My Street is a Coventry Artspace led project through which we work in collaboration with local community organisations to bring artists and artwork to local communities. The project was initially developed as part of Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture. Find out more here.
Images by Trevor Price//Marianne White/Justina Mulvaney
Following an Artist Callout in February, a panel with representatives from each partnership organisation selected Donna Preece-Jones as the Artist On My Street for this partnership project with Heart of England Community Rail and the Life Path Trust.
Over the course of 4 weeks, Donna met with “Station Adopters” from the Life Path Trust on Tuesday mornings to experiment with abstract art techniques and collaging, while exploring the theme of “Connections”. Donna then collated the group’s artwork and ideas into a series of 10 panels inspired by what “Connection” meant to the participants. The work is on display in the Interchange at Coventry Rail Station until October 2024.
Donna worked with participants from the Life Path Trust through weekly workshops harnessing the group’s creativity while focusing on identifying what “Connection” meant to them. The participants were able to experiment with paint, photography, modelling clay, collage techniques and writing to express themselves and their interpretation of “Connection”, and over the course of the workshops specific themes were identified – Communication, Creativity, Food, Gratitude, Love, Music, Nature, Sport, Travel and Technology.
After the 4 weeks of workshops were completed and Donna had created the final artworks, a launch event was held at Coventry Rail Station to unveil the exhibition and celebrate the involvement of the participants. Cake was served alongside a mini-exhibition of original artworks created by the station adopters during the workshops, and the group attended with their families alongside representatives from the partner organisations and funders involved. The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Coventry also attended, and the Mayor gave a speech about his own experiences as a regular commuter and how positive it is to see artwork brightening up the train station for travellers to enjoy.
This project, delivered in partnership with Heart of England Community Rail and the Life Path Trust, was generously funded by Avanti West Coast and took place in the spring of 2024.
WATCH DONNA’S VLOG ABOUT THE PROJECT
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Artist On My Street is a community engagement initiative created by Coventry Artspace during Coventry’s time as UK City of Culture. The original project was funded by Arts Council England, Coventry City of Culture Trust, The Community Fund and Coventry City Council.