Multicultural mural and art to celebrate island communities

Sunday 29 August 2021

Artists from Portugal, Poland and Romania have been invited to take part in a residency programme in the island to create work celebrating the contribution of each community to the island and help inspire a multicultural mural.

ArtHouse Jersey is calling for artists with experience of socially-engaged practice to come to the island for the “unforgettable” paid residency.

Artists of any discipline can take part – from painting to sculpture, printmaking, dance, conceptual, crafts, photography, literary, video, music, multimedia, and others.

One artist from each country will be invited to come to the island to learn about, research and explore the lived experience of their compatriots. They will be living within each of these three local communities while creating a piece of work that celebrates the contribution each makes to the island.

The work will be gifted to ArtHouse Jersey and showcased over the last weekend of the residency.

Pictured: The artists will be asked to a visiting street artist on the lived experience of the Portuguese, Poles and Romanians for a mural.

During the final two weeks of their residence, the selected artists will be asked to help brief a visiting street artist on the experiences of Portuguese, Polish and Romanian people in Jersey, introducing them to the communities and explaining what they have learnt from their own experience. 

This will inform the muralist’s creation of a piece of work in a separate but connected project which also aims to celebrate the contribution each community makes to Jersey. 

ArtHouse Jersey is working closely with the Polish Cultural Institute, The Embassy of Portugal and the Romanian Cultural Institute in London and plans to hold an event in London after the residency.

“Using art to recognise and celebrate diversity in Jersey’s community is something we are striving to do more of,” Director of ArtHouse Jersey, Tom Dingle, said.

“We will be pushing the ‘Home’ residency opportunity out far and wide, inviting anyone from the international artist network to apply. To be able to welcome and support artistic talent to come to the island and apply a journalistic yet creative approach to get under the skin of the Romanian, Polish and Portuguese communities here will be a real gift for the island.

“It’s our hope that the artwork created as a result of these residencies will ultimately help Jersey continue to positively celebrate and appreciate the unique cultural landscape in which we live every day.”

The recently published Arts Strategy recommended stronger cultural relations and artistic exchange between the island and European countries. 

“Jersey is an increasingly international and intercultural Island which draws from a diverse range of cultural influences. This presents opportunities for cultural relations activities which can include approaches to shared programming, artist mobility and exchange,” the document noted.”

The strategy said that presenting Jersey as a “creative hub for intercultural and pan-European exchange” would boost the attractiveness of the island as a place to develop arts and creative enterprise as well as stimulating the local arts and cultural life and connecting local assets with those other countries – such as Portugal, Poland, France and the UK.