Old Town Bloom has always been an artist led project, from the artists at Hazlehurst Studios that created the project, to the artistic talents that all our marvellous volunteers seem to have in bucket loads!
This year whilst working on the Old Town Blooming Jubilee project, we got to work with recently graduated artist Toni Louise Carter - you can see more of her work over on her website 'TLC Illustration'
We first brought Toni to gain some workshop experience and to help out with creating some signage on the day and manage the epic doodle roll.
We then decided to commission Toni to create something more permanent for the garden, to celebrate the Queen and our project, these ideas slightly changed once we had the sad news of the Queen's death.
Toni - aka TLC illustration worked on the brief that we wanted to celebrate The Queen's Platinum Jubilee, but also incorporate some things that were important to her, including her beloved Corgi's and some of her favourite flowers. Even though our garden project is tiny, we still manage to have Lily of the Valley and Hydrangeas bloom there and we believe that they are some of the Queen's favourite flowers too.
Some works in progress from Toni:
We were able to work with artists like Toni, thanks to the funding from the The Platinum Jubilee Fund. Young artists like Toni not only bring new ideas to projects like ours, but they also inspire the young people that attend our workshops.
If you are interested in our community garden project - please read 'Old Town Bloom on Tour' to find out what we are doing next.