Artist paints mural at Austin Friars in week long residency

The British poet, painter and illustrator, renowned for his vibrantly illustrated limerick street murals, spent an immersive week at Austin Friars leading a whole-school assembly talking about his career, running limerick-writing workshops with the Junior classes and creating a vibrant mural inspired by the school's core values of Unitas, Veritas, Caritas (unity, truth and love).

Junior pupils engage with the limerick-writing workshops (Image: Austin Friar's)Perhaps best known for his dynamic street art over the last five years, Angry Dan's work is characterized by a bold blend of colours, witty or poignant limericks, and a commitment to conveying powerful messages through visual storytelling.

The commission for the School isn’t his first piece to grace Carlisle however, having been initially approached by Ben Heslop of Blank Wall Assassins to recreate one of his works, ‘A Cantankerous Man’, on the Struts building on Chapel Street in the city in 2019. 

Since then he’s also completed a series of four murals in Cleator Moor, West Cumbria, to celebrate the work of William Wordsworth, JMW Turner, John Ruskin and LS Lowry to recognise the area's "historic importance as a location for artistic inspiration".

In the writing workshops over the course of the week at the school, the pupils learnt about the rhyming structures needed for creating their own limericks and were tasked with coming up with their own creative inventions.

Dan leads the whole school assembly (Image: Austin Friars)One of the lasting highlights of the week was the collaborative creation of a mural that 'encapsulates the essence of Austin Friars’ core values'.

Using feedback from the pupils about what these values meant to them, the finished piece serves as a vibrant representation of the School's commitment to fostering a community built on these foundational principles and the meaningful limerick was painted over differing pencils to represent the important presence of individuality within the School community.

Mr Marsh, head of the Junior School at Austin Friars said, "We were absolutely thrilled to welcome Angry Dan to Austin Friars School for this exciting week.

"This collaboration has not only enhanced our pupils creative writing skills but has also reinforced to them our commitment to Unity, Truth, and Love as our core values.

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"The pupils have loved seeing the stages of creation of the mural, popping down to ask questions and see it evolve over the week.

"We couldn’t be happier with the end result - it’s a fitting and permanent reminder of the school values which we hope will stay with them long after they’ve left us”.

Dan also commented “I've had such a wonderful time at Austin Friars. Everyone made me feel so welcome, and the children came up with some clever and wonderfully silly poems."