A new mural celebrating one of the most diverse areas of Newport has appeared in the city centre. The mural on Temple Street, just off Commercial Road in Pillgwenlly, was completed last week and depicts scenes from Pill Carnival, flags marking the diversity of the area and a portrait of one of Pill's longest-serving police officers.
The mural, which was painted over the course of four days, is part of a wider effort between Newport City Council and local artists to transform Newport as part of its Safer Streets project and comes ahead of Pill Carnival on August 29. Speaking to WalesOnline, artist Andy O'Rourke said his idea for the mural began with commemorating PC Val, a long-serving officer at Gwent Police who patrolled Pill for over 30 years until leaving his post recently.
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"The police had some money and wanted some way of commemorating him, but weren't sure how to do it," he explained. "He is known by everybody in the area and is really respected. It was meant to be a surprise but once I started painting it people were coming up and recognising him, so the cat was out of the bag then."
Later deciding that a mural of a police officer alone might not work in Pill, Andy decided to recreate a costume made of different world flags he'd made with a local primary school for a previous Pill Carnival. "It was a costume I designed for the carnival one year, with each flag representing a country represented at the school. I think we made them in the old library.
"It's interesting - I've spoken to people from Sudan and Romania who've come up and tried to name all the flags. People are coming across and being excited seeing all the flags. It's a slice of their own community."
Pillgwenlly, home to the once-thriving Newport docklands, was once the most important area of the city. Today it has over 30 languages spoken and has been dubbed by locals as “without doubt the most diverse and cultured high street in Wales." However, it has been beset with problems including crime, poverty and prostitution in recent years. You can read more about that here.
Andy said the flags were a positive way of marking the return of Pill Carnival, which celebrates the cultural diversity of the area and takes place on August 29 this year after a three-year break. To further celebrate it he painted a portrait of 15-year-old Pill resident Alexis Cuthbert, this year's Pill Carnival Queen who will lead next month's parade.
"I couldn't decide what the main hook [of the mural] would be but then I spotted something about the new queen of the Pill Carnival," he said. "I got in touch with Alexis and her mum and they were quite pleased. She posed for a lot of photos and it was great. It's positive for a young girl to be a carnival queen.
"She was all smiles. I wanted something that was subtle, and imagined her looking aspirational and almost looking to the future. I've worked on carnivals for years where you've really got to drum up support. But in Pill there are so many associations, people and businesses just doing it themselves locally. There's floats, parades - people really go to town and have a party. It's really well represented and people are quite excited it's on."
Gwent Police Chief Inspector Damian Sowrey, who is leading the Safer Streets project, said: "This mural represents the vibrant community that Pill is, and we hope it is enjoyed by all.
“Not only does it bring colour to the streets, studies show that artwork can improve wellbeing, positivity and reduce crime and we’re committed to make Pill a safer place.”
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