Teen 'art activists' transform seaside town with street art

Big Wall participants with Weston town centre artwork
-Credit:Super Culture


A panel of teen 'art activists' are going to create street art, murals and posters as part of a new collaborative project. ‘Big Wall’ is a Big Worle initiative launched in November 2024, funded by Local Trust and supported by Weston-super-Mare Town Council and Super Culture.

It will engage young people in the Worle area through creative activities that explore different forms of wall art to develop new, site-specific artworks for the central blue zone in Worle. The project, led by Weston-based artist Sam Francis, and Community Producer Sophie Shepherd, will culminate in a legacy public artwork for Worle that will be unveiled in Summer 2025.

Following presentations about the project at Worle Community School and Priory Community School, a group of young people, aged 13 to 16, have formed a panel of Art Activists. The ‘Big Wall’ programme of activities include regular meet-ups, workshops with guest artists and trips to iconic art sites in Bristol and London.

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The aim is for the panel of young people to develop their own voices within the sessions and help to shape the direction of the project, which will cover areas ranging from street art, word art, poster projects, fly-posting, billboards and murals to stencilling, stickers, freehand drawing, projection and digital mapping, freehand drawing and 3D wall-based art.

Weston-based artist and Big Wall project facilitator, Sam Francis said: “Activist Art is rooted in the act of doing; and addresses social issues, challenging the status quo to inspire change through creative expression. Through ‘Big Wall’ young people will look at how this artform can be used to communicate ideas and messages that respond to the local community as well as the wider world that they are part of.

“As the project unfolds, participants will discover how public art happens and explore social action in arts and culture through wall-based, site-specific artworks in public places - graffiti and beyond!”

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Charlie Lester, Chair of Big Worle, said: “Big Worle are proud to collaborate with Super Culture on this inspiring project. We are excited to see what the panel of young people will create for our legacy, community piece to showcase at our finale event in August 2025”.

Creative sessions that have taken place so far include an introductory workshop where the art activists created their own graffiti name tags, UV artworks and a Weston town centre guided tour of artworks including Weston Wallz.

Big Worle secured funding from Local Trust, a place-based National Lottery funded programme funder that was established in 2012. For updates about the ‘Big Wall’ art project, visit superculture.org.uk and follow @superculturewsm and @BigWorle on Facebook.