The ‘next stage’ of a city-wide street art project has been revealed.
After a prominent new piece was unveiled at the Red Herring Escape Rooms building on West Tower Street in Carlisle, created by artist Luke Smile, is itself a part of an ambitious new project brought to life by Eden Arts and Blank Wall Assassins.
This is the second piece of art that has been created via a partnership between the two organisations called ‘The Bigger Picture project’.
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Adrian Lochhead, director of Eden Arts, said the project is ‘about creating a new vision for the city showing what could be possible through greater cultural activity’.
“The city already boasts a significant wealth of historical landmarks and the basis of a thriving economic centre, but both organisations believe even more can be done to put Carlisle on the national and international map, giving us all more to be proud of.”
He said the partnership is ‘looking at the city and dreaming of what it could be’, namely a place that’s famous for it’s culture.
“That’s not to say it is a bad place, I am a resident and proud to be one, I think Carlisle is great, I just feel that it could be even greater with more activity, more going on in the centre, a more joined up approach, I think everyone does if we are honest,” Mr Lochhead added.
The next phase is to bring ‘experts’ from other cities across the UK and Europe to the city to get their suggestions for new approaches.
Mr Lochhead said culture plays a ‘big role in shaping and promoting’ the city’s identity and can be done so via street art, festivals, events, galleries, and even simpler things such as lamppost signs having changed the look of Warwick Road outside Brunton Park.
“We want to think even bigger than that - for example what could the old Hoopers building be, what changes could be made to the public realm, how could the image of the city be changed through hosting truly international cultural events?
“These things have both huge economic impact and on local business but also big impact on people and social cohesion.”
Part of the outcome of the project will be a short documentary which is being created by local filmmaker Adam Reid from AJR visuals.
It is hoped that The Bigger Picture will lead to more, and in particular an international standard wall art festival to rival and compliment those seen in other places like Waterford Walls Festival and All Caps in Rotterdam.
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