An artist is calling for people to share their experiences of building bridges for an outdoor art project.
Grace Duggan, who grew up in Barking, is asking friends, family and neighbours across the borough to share their experiences of a time when they built a bridge and what they learned from the experience.
Along with illustrator Katie Peck, Grace will then create a piece of art to form part of wider a public artwork, called Bridge, as part of a project from Creative Barking and Dagenham (CBD) and Imagineer Productions.
Grace said: “I’m really excited to be involved in the Bridge project and to hear about people’s experiences and combine them into a beautiful illustration with Katie.
“Katie and I used to work together as teenagers and now we are both working in the creative industries. This is a great opportunity to reconnect and collaborate.”
Grace regularly collaborates with communities as part of her work and has carried out projects with the Young Vic, Arcola Theatre and Studio 3 Arts in the past.
In the past five years, CBD has teamed up with people to produce Dagfest, a summer festival in Dagenham Village.
Earlier in the summer CBD and Imagineer launched an open call for artists, performers or craftspeople to create a series of activities for Barking and Dagenham.
Imagineer is a Coventry-based company which makes large-scale outdoor work. CBD aims to help people get creative in their neighbourhoods by designing, making, commissioning and curating art as well as taking part in activities.
The artists were invited to reflect on the theme, bridge, including what divides and brings people together.
Grace is one of the first four artists to succeed in gaining a commission. She is joined by Jacqueline Otite, Silvano Griffith-Francis and Naomi Joseph.
Over the coming months they will be asking people to build balloon bridges to help heal the divide between two communities and, with their children, complete a series of quests in half term using their imaginations.
Grace is hosting a Zoom workshop on Thursday, September 17 at 6pm. Booking is via Eventbrite.
For more about Bridge visit creativebd.org.uk/
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