By Mark Shields
Mark Shields shares the journey behind creating The Meadows Community Centre Art Trail brightening up North Shields shared green spaces.
The Meadows are developing an art trail around their community garden.
I created the mural on the front of the building to help advertise the garden and encourage more community members to access the space. The main artwork in the front sits right next to the entrance and invites people around into the garden space, with a trail of bees working across the building and around to the rear.
Following on from that I painted two of the shipping containers within the garden to help them brighten the space up and to add to the art trail. The first is a welcome sign, to point people into the garden space, with a nature theme and also a nod to all of the vegetables the garden grows and offers to the community at discounted rates.
There are also a couple of pieces in there from another artist who goes by the name of Durham Spray. But that’s not all – you will find sculptures and other nature themed artworks and installations in and around the garden too.
The Meadows is doing a lot of great community work in the area, supporting local people and I really enjoy supporting an organisation like this who are all about the local people in their community. They are always looking for more volunteers to get involved in the garden, so if any local people are interested give them a shout!
