Preston Park station in Brighton has been transformed with a new 90-metre-long mural with the help of people supported by our Active Lives service, as well as others in the local community.
Working with street artists Sprite and SNUB23, the exciting collaboration celebrates the diversity of Brighton’s community, promotes inclusion and raises awareness of Grace Eyre, while creating a lasting and impactful mural at Preston Park station for everyone to enjoy. It is displayed alongside our other work as station partners, improving the station environment with planters and posters.
The thought-provoking and uplifting mural, which is one of the longest in Brighton, has been inspired by people with a learning disability and autistic people supported by Grace Eyre. They developed their ideas during a series of workshops run by the artists as part of our Active Lives sessions over the last few months. before joining Sprite and SNUB23 and other artists at Preston Park station to help bring their design to life.
The design is based around the positive message of ‘Kindness Changes Everything’. The colourful palette of the mural, plus the variation in letters and overlayed illustration makes the phrase harder to read – representing how some things can be harder for people with a learning disability, but that different perspectives can create something beautiful.
Street artist Sprite said:
“Working with Grace Eyre has been one of the biggest highlights of my career so far. This project has become more than a job for me. I have loved every moment working alongside the amazing team at Grace Eyre.
“We’ve met so many brilliant individuals who have brought so much joy to my life. I really hope to continue spending more time with the groups there, chatting with Lara and Nat, giggling with Mena and Mario, bantering with Kyle, listening to Josh and Keir’s hilarious stories, and admiring Teresa’s and Zena’s artwork.
“I’m so excited for everyone to see what we have created and hope it brings more recognition to this amazing group and their inspiring support workers.”
Members of the community also joined the artists on Saturday 6th December for a community painting event and street art workshop. They were able to try out different paint and stencilling techniques and find out more about the project and the artists at The Modern Funeral’s event space, next to Preston Park station, before heading the wall to make their own mark.
Fellow street artist SNUB23 added:
“Art has been an evolution for me, I’ve grown with it for all of my life. Mark making and colour experiments are such a joy, I find it wonderful to share my knowledge and experience when running workshops, but on this project I have found I’m the one learning.
“From exploring surreal word association to beautifully organised chaos in some of the colour research and spray pen workshops, the fearless creativity in every session is astounding.
“I always left a visit to Grace Eyre with a huge smile on my face with great artwork and lovely memories made. It has been an honour to focus all the output from the workshops into the huge bright and colourful design.”
The mural project is part of the charity’s adoption of the station and has been supported by Southern Railway’s Your Station Your Community fund.
Tom Easdown, Southern’s Head of Stations said:
“This fresh lick of paint at Preston Park station doesn’t just look great but also raises awareness of the fantastic work our partners Grace Eyre do in the community.
“I’m excited to see the finished piece soon and admire the creativity of everyone who’s contributed to it, alongside the tens of thousands of people who will see the mural out of the train window on their way into the city.”
The project has also been supported by Cass Art who provided some of the art materials.
Take a look at our gallery below to see the development of the mural.
Read more about Active Lives and the activities on offer
