People supported by Grace Eyre help create Brunswick Market Mosaic

Caroline Budden is a mosaic artist at her workshop, Luna Moon Mosaic, in Brighton.

She has also worked as a freelancer within Grace Eyre’s Active Lives programme for around seven years where she leads a popular mosaics session.

The “Brunswick Market Mosaic” was made after a call out to local artists to create a mural for the 200th birthday of The Old Market in Hove. The building has been at the heart of local life since 1825, having been stables, a warehouse and riding academy and now a thriving independent arts hub.

Caroline was selected alongside five other artists to create work inspired by different eras of the building’s history with thanks to Heritage Lottery funding. The remit was to engage the community, inspire pride in local history and add some vibrancy to the inside of the building. The artists were encouraged to reach out to the local community to help with the artwork.

Caroline made the large mosaic plaque with the original name of the market and the dates of its first manifestation as Brunswick Market. She made it using ceramic tiles and incorporated bits of crockery she found on her walks around Brighton.

During the mosaic sessions at Grace Eyre on Thursday mornings, the group created a series of smaller mosaics to go around the outside of the Brunswick Market Mosaic depicting various food produce that would have been sold in the market between 1828-39.

The group made the following:

• Rainna – oysters and peas
• Anthony – a pear
• Mario – a potato and a fish
• Lily – apples and an egg
• Mena – mussels
• Nick – a mushroom
• Kyle – carrots and a plum

Caroline also held other free workshops in Brighton to get more people from the local community to contribute. The finished mosaics have now been displayed permanently on a wall inside the historic venue.

Recently, a group of people supported by Grace Eyre went to The Old Market for a tour and to see the mosaics in situ.

Caroline said:

“It was great to see their faces and to hear their responses to seeing their mosaics up on the wall at the venue. Afterwards we enjoyed teas and coffees in the bar. Everybody agreed that the mosaics looked really good. It was a wonderful project to be involved with and I felt very proud of our collective efforts!”

You can see the mosaics displayed downstairs at The Old Market.

Find out more about activities offered by Grace Eyre Active Lives.