If you've walked or driven over Gladstone Road Bridge in Barry recently, you might have noticed that it's been given a new pop of colour. The bridge has been painted with a brightly coloured mural as part of a large-scale public art project.
The Vale of Glamorgan Council has commissioned an artist to design two pieces of artwork for local infrastructure in Barry and Penarth, with the mural on Barry's Gladstone Road Bridge at the Waterfront being the first to be unveiled. The project, titled 'Crossing Bridges,' has been funded by the Welsh Government Active Travel Fund in a bid to encourage walking and cycling as an alternative to long-term commuting.
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The council sought to appoint an artist to transform the bridges in November last year, to "transform the two bridges into welcoming, memorable landmarks." Katrina Adams is the artist behind the new bridges. In December last year, she ran a community workshop and, through a collaborative process with local residents, designed a mural to represent the area and resonate with the community.
Katrina, a self-taught visual artist, worked with a community art group to identify notable landmarks, heritage, and architecture to be used as inspiration for the abstract design. The Gladstone Bridge design features a blue harp shape representing The Knap Lake, the railway arches from Porthkerry Viaduct, and locomotive shapes taken from old images of Barry Scrapyard, for instance.
Katrina started print making as a hobby around six years ago and has a background in local government and learning and development. She splits her time between London and Barry and, despite having work displayed all across the UK, this is her first project in Wales. "I'm on a mission to try and twin Barry with Peckham, I think that could work quite well," she joked.
Katrina has also previously been commissioned for projects with ITV and Coventry City of Culture, and applied for the bridges project after seeing an advert, saying it was "right up her street."
Painting was carried out by Swansea Painters, with Katrina producing a scale screen print for the 120 metre bridge walls and marking the bridge design out in Sharpie pens to guide painters. The work on the Cogan Bridge - which Katrina says has "an Art Deco feel" - is yet to be completed, but will feature another design from Katrina, including shapes inspired by the barrage, Cogan Pill House, and sails and chimneys from boats.
Katrina says that it's "really nice" to see her finished design on the Gladstone Bridge. "Every time I drive past with my almost in-laws they're like, 'Look at this bridge, isn't it lovely?' It's just nice, it's bright," Katrina said. She added that she understands and appreciates that the abstract design might not be to everyone's taste, but "for every two or three negative comments, there were about 25 positives."
"I feel really enthusiastic about public accessibility to the arts and public art generally," Katrina said. She added: "Public art, it's about sparking curiosity and bringing joy to people really, and also making people have a look around at their environment. We're so busy looking at phones these days that we don't tend to look up and around and actually when there was nothing on that bridge no-one noticed it, whereas now it sparks conversation about, 'What is art?' It sparks conversation about the environment that people live in."
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