A mosaic from Carrie Reichardt has been unveiled in Parr. Celebrating the borough’s strong women it is part of a wider initiative from community arts organisation, Heart of Glass.
Featuring the words “May we know them, may we raise them, may we be them” the mosaic can be found on the wall of Connie’s Club on Broad Oak Road. Carrie Reichardt, an artist well known for her community based and historically relevant works, created the piece in collaboration with local people.
Clay Hearts
Featuring hundreds of hand made clay hearts. They have been made by local children and adults in honour of their own grandmothers, mothers, daughters and sisters. These are placed along with historic images celebrating local women from history. From those working in the rag trade through to professional footballers such as Lizzy Ashcroft and Lily Parr.
Untold Stories
The mosaic aims to capture and highlight untold stories of women in St Helens. Using a mix of mural, mosaic and screen-printing techniques, the end result is elaborate, intricate and detailed. It’s an approach that Carrie Reichardt has honed over the years. Her famous house is Chiswick is completely tiled in mosaic from head to toe. She has also created mosaics on objects as diverse as cars and buoys in the past.
Joyful Project
“This has been the most joyful and community orientated project I’ve ever worked on” said Carrie. It’s a piece of work that has followed in the footsteps of other public art commissions across Parr and St Helens. The mosaic joins pieces from Nomad Clan, Faunagraphic, Billy Colours and Fandangoe Kid. All created as part of the Strong Women project from ‘Heart of Glass’.
The Strong Women programme is made possible by money raised by National Lottery players and distributed through The National Lottery Heritage Fund. It forms part of Heart of Glass’ Arts Council England supported Creative People and Places programme. Additional support was given from Torus Foundation. Supporting Carrie on the project were Claire from ‘Postive Life Workshops’, regular collaborators ATM, Karen Wylder and Sian Wonnish Smith. Tamara Froud supported with the install.
Brilliant art! Brilliant Article ! Well done x