A vibrant new mural has been revealed in Gorton Park to remember the history of the area and celebrate its local people.
The artwork follows several murals already hand-painted around Manchester including Levenshulme and the Gorton and Abbey Hey areas as part of a wider project to commemorate the community and encourage engagement with art and nature.
The mural, designed and created by Richard Preston, reflects the rich history of Belle Vue and Gorton as well as the local environment and wildlife of the surrounding Gorton Park.
The Manchester artist, also known as Hearts Mural, has described his art as paying homage to the locomotive industry featuring the Gorton Tank, wildlife at the former Belle Vue Zoological Gardens and the area’s first Monastery built in 1872.
The street art is displayed at Hideout Youth Zone, opposite Gorton Park, who have supported the project by involving the young people at their youth centre.
The excited youngsters joined in with a collaborative paint pen workshop and learned essential spray can techniques to help with the finishing touches to the mural.
Members of Gorton’s local community were present to see the mural officially revealed including those whose family worked on the steam engines and a racer from the Speedway races.
Other supportive partners and sponsors have been Brewers Stockport Decorators, Rosgal, Belle Vue Aces and Gorton Monastery.
By going to see the artworks, residents and visitors alike are able to explore and learn more about the areas, helping to foster a greater sense of appreciation for the beauty and variety of their local area.
Lee-Ann Igbon, Executive Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods, said: “I am thrilled to be supporting the introduction of this new mural in Gorton Park to recognise and remember the terrific contributions of its community.
“This mural follows on from several which have been hand-painted as part of bringing vibrancy to our green spaces, learning history and harnessing a thriving community spirit.
“I want to say a huge thank you to our brilliant partners and the young people involved who helped make this latest art installation possible which will serve as a reminder and mark the trailblazers in their community for years to come.”
Richard Preston, a local artist, said: “It was great to be a part of this project. I got to paint the history of the area on the best community centre, in a beautiful park and it was great to see the locals enjoying it coming together.
“It’s great to work with the young people on this; it’s very important to me to show them that choosing art as a career is possible. They did a great job and hopefully I’ll return to teach them more.
“Art is important for mental health and inspiring people. We all use art for different reasons. I use it because I think it’s important to make people smile.”
Corey, a young member who supported the project, said: “It was really cool getting to help spray paint the wall design. I got to learn different tricks and techniques like how to round off and complete certain areas and create bold outlines to make things stand out even more. It was a fun challenge, and I really enjoyed it.”
