about the mural
As part of the Creative Estuary’s initiative to showcase the 60 miles of the North Kent and South Essex region as one of the UK’s most dynamic and creative areas in the whole of the UK, Our Towns has partnered with Creative Estuary, to create a truly innovative, co-commissioned artwork, entitled Our Towns: Climate.
Our Towns: Climate aims to inspire and encourage conversations around climate, with a monumental art installation influenced by the local ecology and chosen by residents.
To enable these discussions during COVID restrictions, an online forum and voting system was launched, asking local residents to choose whether the mural should focus on ‘people and our behaviours’ or the ‘planet and our impact.’ The poll received over 400 votes, with the ‘planet and our impact’ proving most popular.
CREATIVE ESTUARY
Creative Estuary has a vision to forge a new future founded on creative energy and innovation, along the length of the Thames Estuary. Our ambition is clear: To transform 60 miles of the Thames Estuary across South Essex and North Kent into one of the most exciting creative clusters in the world. We’re going to do this by developing the places where the creative industries can build a vibrant and prosperous future, enriching communities and strengthening the region. The creative and cultural industries contribute more than £100bn per year to the UK economy, helping to attract investment, catalyse innovation, and enhance distinctive places and communities. The £6.5m Creative Estuary programme will transform the visibility, identity and future of the region’s creative production infrastructure, supporting more than 400 new jobs, delivering new skills, qualifications, and apprenticeships across an area of 1.5million people, providing skills and training for more than 500 people. By using culture as the catalyst for growth, the Thames Estuary will provide much-needed space for expanding creative businesses and provide the scale of services, skills and infrastructure sought by both UK organisations and international creative producers. The success of Creative Estuary will contribute to wider national programmes to generate investment, jobs and creative industry opportunities for the whole Thames Estuary, making it one of the most attractive places to live and work in the UK. Creative Estuary is supported by The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and led by a consortium of public sector and cultural organisations. The project is led by the University of Kent on behalf of a consortium of public sector and cultural organisations. They include the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP), Kent and Essex County Councils, the Greater London Authority, 11 local authority areas represented by Thames Gateway Kent Partnership and Opportunity South Essex, South East Creative Economy Network (SECEN), University of Essex, Locate in Kent and cultural organisations Metal and Cement Fields.
The artist
A graduate of Goldsmith’s, London, British artist and designer INSA began his career as a graffiti writer, painting streets and buildings as he travelled. From INSA’s work is now held in the V&A collection, and has been presented at Tate Britain, London. Outside of the UK, INSA has left his mark in major cities around the world including; Tokyo, LA, New York, San Francisco Luxembourg, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Warsaw, Berlin, Brussels and Montreal.
Insa introduces his iconic GIF ITI style interventions for Basildon Town to instigate a climate conversation through a rare flower found in Basildon meadows.