Bus shelter art unveiled (From Redditch Advertiser)

Bus shelter art unveiled

4:56pm Thursday 16th July 2009 in Local

PUPILS have replaced two old and damaged bus shelters as part of a project led by Redditch Community Safety Partnership.

Two murals by students from Arrow Vale High School and Ipsley Middle School, with help from Eric Klein Velderman of Cantoo Arts, were unveiled by Mayor Malcolm Hall as part of a rolling programme of bus shelter improvements at the Winyates Centre.

These murals, printed by Matchborough company PSW Print and entitled Winyates Matters, form a piece of work illustrating what the pupils think of their community and why it is important to them.

They have been made using translucent ink and will be displayed on the shelters like stained glass.

The idea to make a feature of local bus shelters was the brainchild of Redditch councillor Juliet Brunner, the council’s portfolio holder for community safety, and similar shelters have already been installed in Matchborough and Woodrow district centres, with plans to extend this to other areas of the town.

Mrs Brunner said: “Young people are less likely to damage or accept other people defacing something they have worked towards and therefore have some ownership of.  “I’m determined to put Redditch on the map for bus shelter street art.”

Redditch Council community safety project officer Peter Hill, who has co-ordinated the bus shelter project, said: “This unique project allows us to transform ugly, ignored and unused bus shelters into critically admired works of art.”