Harrow Town Centre BID - Diwali mural art workshop 2021
WeTheSeeds worked with WeAreHarrow business development district (BID) to create a unique interactive engagement experience for the Hindu festival of Diwali.
Working with local artist Ashima Kumar, whose works are inspired by a powerful balance between eastern and western patterns, we designed and printed a 7 metre rangoli-themed “movable” mural which was inspired by the colours and beauty of the festival of lights. The mural design had purposeful blank areas, ready for social engagement.
It was our job to create a high street experience that worked with the BID, town centre light switch on event, raised a positive dialogue around the festival of Diwali and was inclusive by nature.
Diwali mural art workshop 2021
The process
The first thing to do was to work with the artist to create the design for the mural.
Our design team consulted with the artist whilst ensuring that the main themes of Diwali were communicated within the initial sketches. From there applicable colours, patterns and shapes were chosen and scaled accordingly. It was important at this stage that we were conscious of the structure of the mural’s design so that there were enough blank space for workshop participants to fill in. Lastly we made sure to add our client’s branding alongside collaborating organisations.
Growing the seeds
WeTheSeeds worked with local artists from LB Harrow and the surrounding area to staff the high street workshop in the public realm. These included artists that were just as passionate about the community as we are and love being around people!
We curated a space within the public realm which reflected the festival’s nature. The “movable” mural was hung securely by our team and the marquee was dressed to reflect the festival of Diwali, with lots of hanging rangoli’s and flower garlands.
We then invited local school children from Norbury school to participate in the mural’s painting process. This included years 4, 5 and 6 as each year group took turns to fill blank areas of the mural in, with our team on hand to help with the process.
Once the session with the school had ended, we opened up the workshop to parents and children within the general public, with aims to increase high street engagement and organisation empathy over the Diwali period whilst helping drive footfall into retail and hospitality venues.