Youngsters inspire new nature-themed murals

A partnership involving Derby City Council and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust has resulted in colourful nature-themed murals being created in Normanton.

Working with The Pakistan Community Centre, the murals, in Normanton Road, have been painted by local artist Todd Jerm.

As well as the artwork, plants and flowers have been added to walls and planters, thanks to cash from the Home Office’s Safer Streets Fund.

The artwork was inspired from drawings by young people at the Pakistan Community Centre’s summer holiday activity club.

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s community organiser, Adam Dosunmu Slater, and youth worker, Ruth Richardson visited the club and asked them to draw something which represented nature and the community.

Many students chose animals they had seen in Arboretum Park, such as foxes and squirrels, and others commented on the culturally diverse and exotic shops that make up Normanton Road.

Artist Todd took the drawings as the basis for his work and split them into distinct themes across the three-tiered area owned by Pak Foods.

Adam said: “It’s so great to see another space for wildlife in the Arboretum area and even better that the young people that live here get a chance to be part of that change.

“Now, when they walk past, they can say we played a part in designing that and have ownership and pride in their community.”

Councillor Hardyal Dhindsa, Derby City Council’s cabinet member for Streetpride and communities, said: “Normanton Road is such a busy, vibrant shopping centre, used by those across Derby and the East Midlands.

“This area has often been blighted by fly tipping and littering. That’s why I am so excited to see the transformation of the area using the designs of the young people of Normanton to create this amazing mural.

“This is truly a local community project with a local artist creating the work; local children providing the inspiration and our local businesses supporting the initiative and hopefully looking after it with our local community of ‘One Normanton’.”

The project is part of Nextdoor Nature, a wider programme of nature themed regeneration in Derby.

Through this initiative, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust is working with local groups, schools and Derby City Council, to facilitate the creation of a Green Corridor between Normanton and Arboretum Parks and improve pockets of green space for urban wildlife.