8th July

The Redcliffe Art Collective – Well! This week it’s been all about art for Born Again Swindonian. On Wednesday evening myself and Linda Kasmaty went to a happening at St Barnabas’ church in Gorse Hill – apropos the amazing paintings in there. I’ve not yet got round to blogging about that. It’s on my list.

Then yesterday, I went to see Helen Salter, Steve Light and a host of other fab artists in the process of painting what you see below. This is Redcliffe Street in Rodbourne – the proverbial spit from the Outlet Centre.

Rodbourne Street Art Community Project

From their Go Fund me page here – paraphrased and edited for SEO purposes.

Helen Salter, who I met with yesterday, is project leading this terrific Rodbourne street art community project. With the help of a steering group, Helen and others have taken on the challenge of clearing their streets and making Rodbourne, and by extension, Swindon, a place for us all to have pride in.

Now, I’m not going to lie, this Born Again Swindonian has struggled of late with the Swindon love, what with the loss of the Oasis AND the museum and art gallery. So it IS fab to have something to get excited about. The Swindogs coming next year, def falls into that category – and this does too. And this project is an excellent reminder that, by and large, everything that’s good about Swindon is good despite SBC and not BECAUSE of them.

Back to the street

Anyway – back to Redcliffe Street. This mural is the first heritage-themed street art piece to take place in Rodbourne. And it’s a gift to Rodbourne from the Redcliffe Collective. That’s a group of ten local artists that have come together to use their talent to give this mural to Rodbourne/Swindon residents.

But no-one wants that to be the only one do they? The artists don’t for sure!

Well – with your help they can do more. Heck they could make Rodbourne known for something other than the Dolphin (featured in Swindon in 50 Buildings) and the Outlet Centre. Apologies in advance if Rodbourne has some other attraction that I’m ignorant of.

And yes – I KNOW – times are tough right now. But if you can only spare £1 – that helps. EVERY bit helps.
That said, Go Fund me don’t take anything smaller than £5. So if you DO want to make a teeny – but welcome – donation then get in touch with them on their Facebook page here.

The group will use any money raised to buy more materials and equipment for future projects.

Find them here on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theredcliffecollective – go and see them and bung the a quid or two! They deserve your support don’t they? This is the start of something WONDERFUL. #SwindonIsAwesome

Muraltastic Swindon

Many years ago now, Swindon-artist Ken White made Swindon the mural capital of the UK – though he painted many murals in other parts of the country and abroad too. I happen to have written a book about Ken – more info on that here. #JustSaying

A few years back a fab mural appeared on Cambria Bridge and it gave a nod to Ken’s earlier mural in that same location.

But now, in more recent years and months a whole host of murals have appeared all over the town – it’s amazing. One of my faves is this one by Billy Beaumont – but really – I love them all.

In no particular order:

Sarah Harris and her fab piece on Bellevue Road: https://swindonian.me/2022/03/14/you-pay-she-sprays/

Then there’s these: https://swindonian.me/2021/07/30/swindons-street-art-and-murals/

And of course:

New Mural at Regent Circus