community artwork project

Andover YMCA Grand Opening unveils Community Artwork Project

YMCA
On Tuesday 10th of April the Andover YMCA saw its grand opening, which included the unveiling of the community art project. As we are so incredibly proud of this beautiful piece we thought we’d take the opportunity to tell you more about it:

This colourful piece of artwork is positioned in the reception area of Andover YMCA and provides guests with a stunning and meaningful piece of artwork to look at. It brightens up the space and we truly believe that this piece of artwork helps create the atmosphere of community, that we hope everyone involved with the YMCA will feel a part of.

In the words of our own Community Co-ordinator, Jen Goodson:

It represents what we want the building to be about. A place for the whole community.

 

As the name suggests, we created this artwork in collaboration with the local community, enlisting the help of the artist Miranda Bryan, from the Happy Art Company, for the design of individual wooden circles which can be put together to make a whole art piece and oversaw the art workshops where the art was created.

Each individual circle making up the entire artwork was painted by different members of the community, filling it with what they felt community meant to them. We worked with local families, during two painting days that were open to the public and with two local schools, Endeavour primary school and Winton Community Academy, who worked together in year groups. The YMCA nursery also painted one of the larger circles, displaying the handprints of the children. Even our Development Director, Sally Arscott and Jen Goodson got creatively involved and contributed to the artwork.

We hope that this shows the importance of everyone in the community, represented by the circles, which also displays the diversity of our community and also shows that we create wonderful this when we all come together, thereby reflecting the values of the YMCA.

The creation of this artwork was a fantastic opportunity for us to get to know those in our local community and we hope they enjoyed getting to know us as much as we did them. We certainly had incredible fun during making it. We are very thankful for all the hard work everyone involved put in and to Miranda who brilliantly came up with a design to include all age ranges, that could be created by all members working together. As Miranda herself said:

It was very much done by the community, for the community.

It may have taken us a while (our first meeting with Miranda about the design was in October!) but it was worth every second.

Miranda ran some craft sessions during the opening of the building, which was hosted by the Chris Hand, Chief Executive of YMCA Fairthorne Group and the Bishop of Winchester. The unveiling of the art project was also witnessed by many notable members of the community including the Mayor and Councillor Roy Perry from Hampshire County Council. Of course, the artwork was mentioned in lots of the speeches given during the day. How could it not be? It is far too gorgeous to be ignored!

The artwork is available for anyone to come and see during the week while the building is open, so if you happen to be nearby and have a spare few minutes, be sure to stop by.

To find out more about our services, please visit our website www.ymca-fg.org call by for a visit, we look forward to welcoming you!


Hello I'm Tracey

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More stories

Council tax support unchanged in face of pandemic

Residents will continue to receive the same level of council tax support after Test Valley borough councillors voted last week to maintain the existing scheme due to the impact of ...

Contact Us

MLG Gazettes Sales Team

Sales Team


Tel: 01264 316499

Email: enquiries@modernmagazines.co.uk

Stephen Corney

Operations Manager


Email: stephen@modernmagazines.co.uk

Debbie Corney

Director


Email: debbie@modernmagazines.co.uk