Young People Create New Mural at Felixstowe
For more than a decade the Felixstowe Level Two Youth Project has created a series of themed murals for the railway station; the latest incarnation was unveiled following a three day workshop involving fifteen students between the ages of 10 & 13 guided by professional artist Heather Prince.
Funded by the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership’s ‘Line Group East’ and coordinated by Felixstowe Town Council, the project involved creating several individual pieces of artwork relating to Felixstowe including local tourism, the port and railway which were then combined to make a new welcome mural.
The brief for the project was drawn up by the Eastern Line Group of the Community Rail Partnership which comprises members from the town and local parish councils, local business, volunteer station adopters and rail user groups. With rail operator Greater Anglia introducing a brand new fleet of trains to serve the region from 2019, the project was supplied with images of these new vehicles enabling the students to include their own interpretation of them within the design. Other local landmarks include giant cranes at the Port, the newly built Pier Pavilion, the Martello Tower and the town’s iconic beach huts.
The Felixstowe based Level Two Youth Project is dedicated to promoting the welfare of young people within the town and surrounding villages and the project has previously created artwork for the station in association with local transport user group, Felixstowe Travel Watch and the Town Council.
Felixstowe Mayor, Cllr Graham Newman is also Chair of both Felixstowe Travel Watch and the Eastern Line Group of the Community Rail Partnership. On unveiling the new work he said, “The Ipswich to Felixstowe passenger rail service is vital to the town’s tourism industry, as well as being a lifeline to daily commuters, students and long distance travellers. We want the lines stations to reflect this importance to every section of the travelling public. What better way could there be to endorse this importance than to invite Felixstowe’s younger generation to contribute to this welcome mural.”
Shez Hopkins, Project Manager for Level Two said, “We were delighted to continue our association with the station mural with this latest installation, our projects aim to provide a lively programme of activities providing young people with a wide range of different and interesting things to do alongside our Mentoring & Counselling work within local Schools.”
Martin Halliday, Community Rail Officer for the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership added, “The Community Rail Partnership is pleased to have been able to support such a worthwhile project. This latest community art installation provides a colourful welcome to the station and we are hugely grateful to the students and management team at Level Two, artist Heather Prince, Felixstowe Town Council for coordinating the project and Greater Anglia for providing such a prominent place to display the finished product.”