It’s been a while since I completed my mural, ‘A Wander in the Garden’ for Sandal Library and it’s got me thinking about the design process and how lovely it was to have the community involved in this process.
The project was funded through Our Year, a Wakefield wide yearlong project that will see events and activities available to all communities across the district. As part of the mural project, community engagement was an important element. I have engaged with this in past mural projects, with a public consultation being held for the mural at Angler’s Country Park, but for this mural I wanted to give the public a real chance to get involved in the process of designing a mural.
To ensure the community was involved in the Sandal Library project, I hosted two workshops at the Library for the public. The Library has an outside area that they have turned into a natural haven, split into two sections – the children’s garden and the dementia garden. The dementia garden is a paradise of plants, with the Friends of Sandal Library gardening each week to ensure it looks it’s best. As well as plants, it has artworks created by local artists, alongside wooden sheds and structures that resemble old beach huts and boats from staycations past. It is a lovely space to be in and very inspiring. The children’s garden, where my mural is situated, has an expanse of grass to allow the children areas to play, along with planted trees to create privacy from the road.
I knew that the library wanted the mural to be nature-inspired so, when thinking about what I wanted the workshop to be, this was at the forefront of my mind. I thought about how community focused the Library gardens are, and wished to make this the focus of the workshop. I designed the workshop for attendees to contribute their visual ideas of what makes up a Community Garden – this could focus on the plants and animals that make up these types of garden.
On workshop morning, I arrived at the Library and began setting up in the community room, a space with tables, chairs and tea making facilities. I provided large pieces of paper at each workshop which covered the entire table, allowing workshop attendees to draw as big, or as small, and in whatever space they wished. I brought along pastels and pencils that could be used, and the library provided a wonderful array of coloured felt tips and pencils that could be used. The public that attended the workshops were wonderful, really getting stuck in with the concept and providing some fabulous drawings of plants and animals that I could draw from in the designing of the mural.
During the workshops, attendees were asking me questions about my work and the mural itself, and we had some really good chats about the whole process and how therapeutic it is to just take time out of your day to sit and draw. Both workshops were really insightful for myself, as an artist, and I hope that the public found as much value in the experience as I did. Utilising the drawings that were made in the workshops, I included plants, animals and insects that were suggested by the public.
Once the mural was complete, I was contacted by the Wakefield Express to discuss the project and the involvement the community had with creating it. I had a great chat with a reporter over the phone and then I returned to my mural for some photographs to be taken. You can read more about the project in the article - Sandal Library unveils special nature mural after local artist, Beth Morgan, collaborates with community