Media centre

Thursday 18 Mar 2021

Colourful community art scheme brightens up Bristol viaduct

Region & Route:

Wales & Western: Western

Five local artists and artist groups have successfully covered up graffiti with a range of new vibrant artwork at Fox Park viaduct in Easton, Bristol.

Network Rail and Severnside Community Rail Partnership jointly commissioned the five fabulous pieces of artwork which were created by Peace of Art, Silent Hobo, Graft, Anna Higgie, Dave Bain and Zoe Power.

The painting has taken two weeks to complete and aims to improve the overall look and feel of the area by making it a more pleasant environment for local communities and passers-by.

Each piece of art has been focused around a different theme, including promoting sustainable travel, bringing communities together and providing communities with a voice.

This is the latest example of a wider Network Rail initiative known as Project Sprint, that involves tackling graffiti hot spots on the railway across the south west, ensuring the condition and appearance of the railway is graffiti-free and well maintained.

The art scheme was backed by Bristol City Council and supports Secretary of State Grant Shapps’ commitment to improve areas on or near the railway that are affected by graffiti and vandalism in a bid to encourage people to travel by train.

Steve Melanophy, Network Rail’s community safety manager, said: “It feels fantastic being able to see this art scheme completed from start to finish. The local artists have made a huge difference to the local area and the brightly coloured artwork reflects the true style of Easton and the wider Bristol community.

“We want Bristol’s railway infrastructure to be a clean and welcoming environment for passengers and local residents living alongside the railway. We hope that art schemes like this will encourage people to look after the infrastructure for generations to come.”

Faye Keane, Severnside Community Rail Partnership’s, partnerships manager, said: “This is our largest art scheme to date, and we are thrilled with the outcome! Each of the local artists have put much thought and consideration into their artwork and we are already getting positive feedback from the local community. It has been a real team effort getting it off the ground, but everyone involved is delighted with the results.”

Aumairah Hassan, member of Peace of Art, local artist group, said: “Our mural at Fox Park was based around the ‘voice of the community’. Though most of us live locally and are part of the Easton community, we didn’t want to assume anything so we created a survey for locals to take part in so that we could genuinely reflect their voices and favourite things about the area through our artwork.

“Being a group of female artists from different backgrounds, we felt this was a great opportunity to reflect the rich multiculturalism of Easton. One of the questions asked in the survey was based around what other languages were spoken in the area. We decided to incorporate the word ‘home’ in all these different languages onto one of our mandalas to reflect the true diversity in the community.”