Manyways: Colour Pop Painting On Milnbank Road

By Hollis Crowe

It was a mild and sunny day for artist Lauren Morsley to start adding a base coat of paint to the electrical supply box on Milnbank Road. It wasn’t the world’s prettiest SSEN sub station, but with funding and support from the Changemakers Hub, and the collaboration of the arts group from Uppertunity along with Lauren, it has been made so!

This project epitomises Changemakers’ reason for being, starting with SOUP microgrant winner, Charlotte Young, who had an idea for working with a group at Uppertunity to express themselves through art, it meandered into the creation of a mural to enliven a greenspace in the city. Lauren Morsley was the perfect choice of artist, combining a collaborative approach with interpretation of the group’s expression, and SSEN were really supportive partners, making it easy for the project to unfold.

And so, the Uppertunity arts group joined the first painting workshop, undeterred by rain, to start adding colour to the mural design their ideas created. The new mural was brought to life through this concerted effort, and carries themes of warmth, inclusion and joy. To hear more about the design process have a listen below:

As the themes of the mural are inspired by a range of differing abilities and experiences, it was integral to include that not only in the finished design, but also in the ways in which people could collaborate in the painting process. Lauren explains more:

After our first group of intrepid painters made great progress, the second workshop with DJCAD Illustration students took over for the afternoon. The weather may not have been ideal at that point, but that is part of the challenge of being a mural artist! Though there may be challenges to the job, its importance cannot be understated: