Residents of Rodbourne are enjoying seeing new life being brought to the streets by an exciting new art collective, as they transform a local building with a new mural, covering up years of old graffiti tagging.
The brainchild of a local woman, Helen Salter, the collective is seeking to brighten up the area, cover up the unsightly tagging in the area, and encourage locals to have more pride in their locality. The first project is the side of a tailoring business on Redcliffe St, and sees the artists copying the arches on the old railway works, and filling them with a mixture of styles, using Rodbourne’s heritage as a theme.
Helen explained: “After first having the idea back in 2016 and speaking to people, it really got going as a concept over the lockdown, when people were spending more time at home and realised that we could make of the area. It is so great to see the artists bringing their ideas to life and covering up what was a drab wall of tags. We have been getting people offering more wall space to the group as they get behind the idea!”
A number of local artists have got involved and their biographies are included in the notes below.
Local Councillor Jim Robbins has been supporting the group: “It is brilliant to see local people transforming our local area like this. There has been an increase in tagging recently, and it is amazing to see some high-quality street art taking its place. The quality of the work is outstanding and the themes are great. Rodbourne has an amazing community spirit, and this sort of projects helps to bring people together. It has been great listening to the group set out plans for how they can develop and do more great work.”
The collective has permission to transform one of the Network Rail bridges over Rodbourne Road and is working on the logistics, to decorate the BT OpenReach street furniture if permission can be sought and plans to work with the Heritage Action Zone around the Railway Village and the old Railway works to help transform the area. They also want to work with Even Swindon Primary School to get the pupils involved.
They are keen to hear from local people who want to get involved, offer wall space to the group and suggest other ways to make Rodbourne a more exciting community.
