One of the latest projects I’ve been involved with is a mural commissioned for the hoardings around the site for Aylesbury’s new Waterside Theatre, due to be completed in 2010.  At the end of 2007, a group of young people involved with Aylesbury Youth Action formed a steering group to kick the project off.  With input from myself as an artist, youth workers from AYA and the arts development team at Aylesbury Vale District Council, the group devised a project, successfully obtained funding from the Youth Opportunities Fund and for most of August have been swimming in acrylic paint to create this enormous mural.

Two themes arose from the early group meetings - faces, mainly of local people, and landscapes.  The mural, which is 40 metres long and nearly 2 and a half metres tall, depicts an imagined audience of the New Theatre, made up of faces, most from Aylesbury, with a few famous ones thrown in.  The audience is a celebration of Aylesbury Vales’s diverse community, enhanced by the individual style of each artist who has co-created the piece, and the humour and character they’ve each brought to the work.  The ten landscapes in the background highlight both the global connections Aylesbury Vale has, and the cultural diversity that will be represented by the new theatre.

The project was installed in October 2008, and officially unveiled by the Leader and Chair of Aylesbury Vale District Council.