Our Big Picture is an arts organisation and social enterprise that delivers art projects across Lincolnshire and work predominantly in Grimsby. Through a Cultural Development Fund, they’ve been producing a project called Our Haven, which is aiming to introduce artwork in Grimsby town centre.
Our Haven is a heritage-based project that reaches out to the people of Grimsby to get involved in several pieces of artwork that aim to explore the past, present and future of Grimsby and its people. I met with Our Big Picture director Paula Denton and artist Annabel McCourt to discover more about Human Murmuration, the third of the four main pieces that form the Our Haven project.
For Human Murmuration, Annabel has taken numerous pictures of Grimsby residents and fashioned them into silhouettes within a single piece of metalwork, which will be placed on the side of the Wilco building facing Grimsby Minster.
When you look at how the town has developed over the years, people still enjoy seeing various artwork that’s been in place for years. We’ve got the Guardians of Knowledge outside Grimsby Library as well as the Viking ships on Bethlehem Street. Having cultural and artistic instalments pieces installed around the town enriches us, I think.
We’ve got a strong background of artists in Grimsby, along with one of the oldest ever art schools in the country with Grimsby Art School. It’s important to recognise that we have a history of producing artists in Grimsby and we should be able to welcome them back and to create more artwork in their hometown.
