A DARK corner of Newton Abbot is being given an artistic makeover with the town’s rail heritage taking centre stage.
A DARK corner of Newton Abbot is being given an artistic makeover with the town’s rail heritage taking centre stage.
The All Aboard project is transforming an unloved but busy pedestrian tunnel under the mainline tracks in Keyberry Road, thanks to a £8,500 grant from the Teignbridge Arts Project.
The rail-themed images that will brighten the underpass are being coordinated by Kate Green, Community Outreach Worker at Newton Abbot Museum.
They came about as the result of extensive public workshops which encouraged young and old alike to pore over museum artefacts.
Some are presented on large printed panels, spanning almost 30 metres and depicting a locomotive and railway carriages carrying references to the museum’s GWR collection.
Others are being painted by artist Caroline Brady who lives nearby.
The installation will also feature QR codes linking to oral rail archives and museum events.
The All Aboard approach echoes that used by Kate at nearby Penn Inn Roundabout where other graffitied underpasses were made beautiful by the Tunnels of Love project.
‘All Aboard is about connecting people to the railway collection and is part of my work called What’s In Store which aims to deliver larger and much more accessible storage space at the museum,’ she said.
‘When I was working at Penn Inn people kept asking if I was also going to do something about the horrible subway in Keyberry Road.
‘So when the TAP funding became a possibility I suggested to Museum Curator Dr Charlotte Dixon that we did something with a railway connection, the tunnel runs under the tracks of course, and that it could be a great way of telling everyone what’s on show at the museum.
‘Charlotte said go for it so I submitted an application and now it’s all taking shape.’
The work started with maintenance staff from Newton Abbot Town Council repainting the entire tunnel in neutral cream.
The murals are now taking shape and the printed panels being prepared ahead of the February 14 completion date.
‘People are already saying it’s brilliant that something is happening so I can’t wait for them to see the finished thing,’ said Kate.
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