Our Mural Project at Mount Edgcumbe Education Centre
This summer we created a 52ft long collaborative mural celebrating the rich history of the Rame Peninsula. It was designed and painted over two months by resident and visiting artists of Awenek Studio CIC, children from three different primary schools and the local home education group. The children who took part added their personal mark by designing a chosen element – from ferries to frigates and smugglers to Segways. We wanted to enable the children participating in the painting to move beyond ‘having a go’ and be able to say ‘I did that’. We aimed to maintain the personality of our many artists’ contributions, all whilst creating cohesion across the piece.
The brief was to create a local timeline for the Education Centre at Mount Edgcumbe, which would be hosting visiting school groups. Our vision was of a piece that was vibrant and dynamic and moved through time and the place, that made an initial impact but would then further engage its audience in unpicking the details. Our design deviated from the traditional timeline format and instead became a collage of events and places in their historical context. We selected landmarks but also included some of the lesser-known stories that we uncovered in our research.
The mural project combined art with local history. Cross-disciplinary projects are a growing trend, especially partnerships between the arts and other subjects. There are recognised benefits of an arts approach to other subject areas; these include increased accessibility through alternative forms of communication (such as visual or performative formats) and increased audience reach. It also offers different tools and languages to describe and explore the subject, enabling novel and imaginative perspectives. We have seen some evidence of the benefits whilst on this project; in process and its reception it has spurred curiosity and people have reported their interest in exploring the peninsula’s history further.
We’ve created an accompanying guide to the mural project for parents and teachers. Click the button below to view and download.
