Youth Connect South West, with the help of some of their young people, gave a brilliant pitch at our 8th Dragons’ Den, and won a grant of £500 towards a graffiti project, here’s their report…
The youth team at Radstock have been able to offer a summer graffiti project on the hoarding at Radco, which is dull and uninviting. Working with permission from the Cooperative Society, young people used the first of four sessions to look at the history of Radstock, Radstock Cooperative and local interest to work together to create a design alongside Nick from Olas Art.
Nicola from the Coop brought over some of the societies artwork and imagery, together with a history book about Radstock Society for young people to use for inspiration.The team agreed with young people a brief of ‘cooperation,’ and what does it mean to work together.
Young people chose to include imagery from the old colliers’ days depicting the mining wheel in motion, dragonflies which are based on the discovery of a giant dragonfly at Tyning colliery “Boltonites radstockensis”. They also used books to represent learning, alongside other images including sunflowers after the recent events in Radstock, to represent everyone coming together in difficult times.
Over the next three weeks, the young people painted and sprayed the design, which you see today on the hoarding. Nick ‘Olas’ was able to explain to young people the importance of prepping the area, using paint to fill large spaces and then explained the different types of nozzles, the effects they create when spraying and how to spray effectively to get the best finish.
The youth team has had lots of feedback from the community, directly and on social media.
On one social media post, 141 likes were given and lots of positive comments including;
- “Fantastic, really brightens the area up and shows great talent and appreciation for the area. Well done to all involved”
- “Absolutely amazing, hopefully people from outside the area will come to see it and visit the museum/other beautiful places”
- “It’s a big thumbs up from me. Well done the younger members of Radstock”
