Tim Robottom of Brink Contemporary Arts, Janette Eslick, a Trustee at Priory Pools Community Centre and Amanda Burford, Chair of Priory Pools Community Centre and member of Packmores Residents Association address the crowd who were invited to celebrate the completion of the stunning murals in Priory Park, Warwick.
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00:00Warrant Pools Community Centre that will be built, where some of you met earlier on this morning.
00:07Thank you ever so much for coming to join in the celebration today.
00:10It's a really important project for the local community and it's been something that it's really important for us to do as a first step towards bringing the new community centre here and to actually show that this area of Warwick is getting investment and things are coming and it's going to get better from now on.
00:26So yeah, also you might just want to have a little look, we're going to hand it to Tim in a couple of minutes just to explain a little bit more about these amazing murals, but in terms of the project community centre we're really proud that it's actually featured us in one of the murals, so your job today is to see if you can work out which mural the community centre has a little image of it is featured in here.
00:46So I wanted to personally also thank some of the funders because this wasn't possible without the funding, so Warwick District Council have been amazing with this project.
00:56They actually identified these walls and these sites initially and more people together with the help of Jonathan over there from Warwick District Arts and really started to say, come on, we need to make this happen.
01:08And after that, Chronicles picked up the lead in terms of managing the project and managed to cause some funding from Warwick District Council, put some money into it, an amazing amount of money, and we also got some funding from Warwick District Council, so that was brilliant to get the project going.
01:26But we did work in collaboration with the local residents' group, and I'm going to hand it out to Mandy to say a few words about the local residents' group and how important it is to the community, and also to thank the extra funders as well.
01:38Thanks, Jeanette. So I'm Mandy, I recognise a few people here. I'm also Chair of the Trustees that are going to build the new community centre, and also Treasurer of the Priory Area Community.
01:51So we just want to say it's great to see so many people here. The work that Tim and his team have done put in to make these amazing murals has really, really kick-started lots of community conversations.
02:05Every time I come and walk past, I'm sure lots of local people here. There's conversations all the time, people are stopping walking their dogs.
02:13Kids are getting involved. We've had the local kids from St. Mary's School come and actually do some of the paintwork, which has been really, really amazing.
02:20So on behalf of the Pat Balls Residents Group, the funders that we've got involved with and we'd like to thank is the King Henry VIII Endowment Trust, Warwick Relief in Need, Warwick Lions and Warwick Rotary Club,
02:36who actually gave the Residents Groups and funds to help get this project started and get it off the ground.
02:43So we really do appreciate everybody's hard work in this, and as you can see, it's turned out absolutely stunning.
02:48So with that, I will turn over to Tim, who is the artist, and he'll explain more about the concept and the work that's gone into it.
02:56Thank you, Mandy. Thank you, Jeanette. I'm just going to say a few thank yous as well.
03:01I'd like to say a massive thank you to the Priory Pools Community Centre for allowing me to use their toilets and facilities while I'm working on the rural.
03:09Most important. Very handy. And also for their support. Friends of Priory Park, Packmore's Residents Association, Stepnell, particularly for helping with two days prep on the underside and all these walls.
03:22These have had brushed down, scraped down. They've been undercoated with a brick stabiliser and then two coats of masonry paint.
03:30And all that was thanks to Stepnell's help. Also Crown Paints. They provided all the masonry paint for that as well as the brick stabiliser.
03:38So a big thank you to both of those companies. Special thank you to the 16 pupils from St Mary's, the Immaculate Catholic Primary School.
03:48All of you guys, you worked so well yesterday. You were so well behaved as well. I'm really grateful to you for that input.
03:55And just to point out, the children did all of the yellow flowers that are by either side of the Labrador, the Black Labrador there.
04:09And it was all done with finger painting. So brilliant work that is.
04:12Firstly, I'd also like to thank Warwickshire County Record Office for their input and some of their support with imagery.
04:20And finally, Warwick Youth Town Council for their support and their ideas too.
04:25So just quickly, so that everybody knows, the theme of this mural, the brief was past, present and future of Priory Park.
04:34So we decided to include the Priory how it would have looked. And from this position, if we looked up the hill, that is how it would have been.
04:45Following on from that, another part of the past is the steam locomotive.
04:50Now this is the Iron Duke or one of the Iron Duke. It's a wide gauge steam locomotive that was one of Brunel's.
04:56And this train would have travelled across this bridge. So that's very specific.
05:01Also part of the past, we've got the lake, which is the Priory Pools, which unfortunately is not there anymore.
05:07But that would have had geese, swans, ducks, as well as fish. And that would have been used by the monks for sustenance.
05:15And then following on from that, we've got the present. Now obviously, nature is ever-present. It's all around us.
05:21And we are also ever-present. And so we've got Fox, Robin, we've got lots of dog walkers.
05:27In fact, the black Labrador was the most popular breed in the park while we were working, which was really interesting.
05:33And I can't say the other bit because Jeanette sort of said, see if you can find the community centre.
05:39So that's up to you to find the future.
05:41OK. But also emphasising that element of past, present and future.
05:47I managed to fit in the theme of dawn with the one with the rabbit and the blackbird.
05:53Obviously the dawn chorus.
05:54And then that spins off over to here, where we've got the fox, who are still usually around early morning.
06:00And then the robins that flit around all over the place here.
06:03In fact, I just saw one on the fence behind the children there.
06:06And then that goes into the afternoon with the dog walkers.
06:11And then going right down to the far end, where we'll go and do the plaque and bailing.
06:15That is meant to represent dusk, so sunset.
06:18And then opposite that is midnight, the middle of the night with a full moon.
06:23And then it comes back round.
06:24And if you think of yourself as being ever-present, the past and the future are either side of us all of the time.
06:31So wherever we are within this timeline, we are always got past just behind us and present just in front of us.
06:38We are ever-present.
06:40OK.
06:40So, without further ado, I think we should have a group photo of everybody that's here stood against the mural.
06:47So if everybody would like to make their way up to this side.
06:51And then we'll get our photographer and...
06:53Everybody get nice and tight, please.
06:55We need to be pretty close together.
06:57Do you really good friends?