MANCHESTER COLLEGE MURAL | ZOË POWER
Creative producer
In post-pandemic England, Manchester College decided to launch their new Openshaw Campus with a visual commemoration of the challenges and triumphs their students lived through in 2020. Enlisting a curator to work with a student panel to select and commission an artist to interpret a brief through a 7 x 9 metre mural. The curator then worked with an artist Zoë Power, as she created a ‘visual time capsule,’ encapsulating the feelings, fears and hopes for the future of the students and staff of Manchester College throughout the pandemic.
Although the mural was briefed to be a representation of the challenges of the pandemic, the predominant theme was to be that of hope, opportunity and aspiration.
The mural shows the tenacity of the students and the support of their staff, and together their combined efforts to uplift each other in their educational community. Reflecting on the reconnection and healing people found in nature during lockdown and the positivity students used in the face of adversity.
The mural is a representation of how the staff pushed the students towards ambition, with the figures each supporting one another and eventually reaching liberation.
