Crawley is brightened up thanks to new murals in the town centre and neighbourhoods

New murals adorn each of those and there are more to come thanks to a project headed up by Creative Crawley.

They are making new murals for and with Crawley, launching in spring 2024 but it’s hard to miss the brilliant work going on and completed so far.

As part of a town wide project, Creative Crawley, founded by Louise Blackwell, have been working with over 350 Crawley residents and seven professional artists to make unique designs for six murals across the town.

The locations for the murals, funded by Arts Council England, Crawley Borough Council, Manor Royal BID and Crawley Town Centre BID, are in the town centre, Manor Royal Business District, Bewbush, West Green and Broadfield.

The aims of the project are to brighten dark spaces and bring a sense of joyful togetherness and pride of place. The murals will launch on May 9

The artists include Alec Saunders, Eloise Gillow, Jac Seifert, Oluwafemi Babalola and Sarah Pimenta.

Eloise is painting mural on the side of Kingsgate Car Park and is one of six selected out of 126 who applied to take part in the project. On why she wanted applied, Eloise said: “It looked like a really great project because of the community process. It helps make really meaningful murals.”

And on her Kingsgate mural, Eloise said: “This one has been inspired by Crawley residents I have done workshops with and developed the themes they suggested they wanted to celebrate about the town.

“There is a prominent tree in the mural which reflects the space we are in now [Memorial Gardens]. And there are also people because one thing that came through in the workshops was how important the community is here and how much people look out for each other.”

The people who appear in the mural are Crawley residents who attended a photography workshop with Eloise earlier in the year.

Lana Needham, murals producer on the project said: “It’s been really great working with the Crawley residents because it’s been great to see what we have been discussing in workshops really come to life.

“We have had some amazing feedback saying it’s great to see brighten up which is amazing.

“It will be great to see what everyone’s thoughts are when the trail is finished.”