Andrew Manson, who studied an art foundation course at Witney and Abingdon College, is passionate about changing the attitude of people in regards to community arts and graffiti.
He said: “Working at the New Theatre has been a fantastic opportunity, as part of the ongoing ‘Positive Impact of Graffiti in the Community’ project. Graffiti gets an unnecessarily bad reputation and with more legal walls and more commissioned pieces it will get the time and talent that it warrants. I hope that this mural at the New Theatre will make people see graffiti in a new light – impressionists had tubes of paint; graffiti artists have tonnes of tins of paint!”
In recent years, the New Theatre have worked with a number of artists on a variety of projects including illustrator Joe Davis, whose artwork can be seen in the venue foyers leading to the Piano Bar, and Matt Black, a student in his final year of the MA Fine Art Drawing course run by Oxford Brookes University & Swindon College.
[caption id=“attachment_24707” align=“alignright” width=“300”]
Graffiti Artwork at New Theatre Oxford by Andrew Manson[/caption]
Dean Stewart, General Manager at the New Theatre, said: “Local audiences will know of the creative work that takes place every night on stage at the New Theatre. We’re passionate about ensuring that the creativity on Oxford’s stage spreads out to all corners of the local community, inspiring a new generation of creative talent from this county.”
The graffiti mural is on permanent display at the New Theatre, next to the venue’s Stage Door on Red Lion Square.
