Westgate Street, Cathedral Quarter

Animal cut outs and community workshops using recycled signage

Establishing an open creative space in the heart of Westgate Street enabled a fluid and interactive opportunity for visitors, residents, and workers to intermingle, share stories and create together. My remit was to engage, inform, learn, and co-create within the current historic context of the HSHAZ project.  Multi-way conversations and discoveries became systematic, forming a shared foundation of interest and knowledge about Westgate Street history and renovation work currently taking place within the High Street scheme.

Taking the simple premiss of animals in Westgate – including histories, folktale, and the present day – conversations were sparked and recalled. From an escaped lion in a 18^th C theatre; a circus polar bear boiled down for tallow at the local ‘fat factory’; a Golden Cricket found in the tea boxes of a local grocer; to wild urban foxes and the ever-present watchful seagulls; the weaving of animals throughout Westgate history link to an accessible aesthetic narrative.

An innovative use of Pop up installations filled empty space with public art. Maximising visual impact to engage and entertain, Animal cut outs drew people in and made them smile. The manifestation of art in the Highstreet helps to maximise public vision and perception of what we have and what could be, were all spaces activated, cared for and in use. The private business sector also benefits from life, in the form of engaging creative arts, spreading into forgotten and dormant areas otherwise sorry and void.

https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/heritage-action-zones/gloucester/#benefits