Artists team up with school pupils for bus shelter revamp

Bailiwick Express Article 21 March 2021

A local arts collective is set to revamp a bus shelter at Grouville Station with the help of pupils from Grouville School.

‘Ramparts’ will also be refreshing the Pontac bus shelter and the mural near the Rice Bowl with “colourful and fresh” designs celebrating Jersey scenes and culture.

This is the first time the collective, which was created in 2015 by former Highlands College and Fine Art student, Heather Brown, has been offered a mural space.

“The collective started off as a conversation with creative friends, all struggling to find direction and motivate themselves to finish something!,” Heather explained.

“I wrote a brief, secured a location to exhibit from and the ball started rolling! Since then, the collective has grown, the variety of creatives involved has expanded, it gets more and more exciting every day.

“We have exhibited island wide, collaborating with local businesses and other creative platforms to celebrate local talent! We currently have a ‘Revolving Wall’ incentive with Common Ground, each month we rotate the artwork, mixing up themes and art forms, featuring new RampArtists and reaching out to others who wouldn’t necessarily have the means or the confidence to network their skills themselves.”

The mural project started after Heather, who lives in St. Clement, reached out to the Parish about the Rice Bowl mural which was looking “tired and weathered”. 

“I offered to put together a mural project to lift local spirits, celebrate hope and send smiles out into the parish,” Heather said. “Upon requesting this site for RampArts Jersey to revamp and brighten up, I was also offered the Pontac Bus Shelter site along with it! We are so grateful for the opportunity to send our positive message out into the island using these wonderful spaces.”

After noticing the Grouville Station shelter also looked bit worse for the wear, with the current design on it fading away in some areas, Heather decided to contact the Parish, who welcomed the opportunity to refresh the location but also include Grouville Primary School, which is just around the corner.

Pupils have been asked to take part in an art competition. The youngest are working off a template image and have been encouraged to choose different colours and shapes to complete the design. Meanwhile, in the older classes, students have been given a brief, that allows them “the creative freedom to submit a completely unique image of their own”. 

“The winners from each age range will have their images painted into the mural by the RampArtists,” Heather explained. “We will also be displaying the school logo alongside the Grouville parish crest, on the bus shelter front. Not only does this boost a sense of community inclusion, but it also encourages the children to engage with creativity and build self-confidence! 

“Many of the children regularly use the bus service to get to and from school on a daily basis, and we are excited for them to have ownership of the shelter in this way!”

Heather has selected, Jacques Le Breton, Christy King, Rosie Evans and Jonny Swift for their “bold, bright, and unique styles” to work on the murals.

“I reached out to a few RampArtists, some with mural project experience and some who had never upscaled their work before for public street art,” Heather said. “It’s been a fantastic process, with sketched and digital designs being submitted.

“We want the sites to be colourful and fresh and have incorporated Jersey scenes and culture into the designs. We hope that islanders will celebrate our creativity and appreciation of our island!”

Photographer Ross O’Neil and videographer Jake Mullins will be documenting the process with both the video and prints to be presented publicly following the completion of the murals.

All artists are donating their time for free and the murals will be created at no expense for the Parishes thanks to Robbialac & Cin Paint Jersey UK, “a long-term supporter of RampArts Jersey”, who are providing the painting material for free for each mural. 

“This is a real community project, aimed to brighten up public locations and engage our island in appreciating the beauty and talent around us,” Heather said. “It is a real honour to have confidence and support from the Parishes, as a collective we are eternally grateful for the opportunity to revamp these locations and can't wait to see them finished!”