Perry Barr community day to create railway station mosaic

The people of Perry Barr are being given the chance to work with artists to create a mosaic for display at Perry Barr railway station.

Local people and community groups will be able to create mini-masterpeices on tiles by pressing tools or items of their choosing into the clay. The soft tiles will then be processed and fired and finally carefully assembled to create a mosaic depicting a Perry Barr railway station sign.

The mosaic is being put together by Artyface Community Art who specialise in creating public art. They have created and installed mosaics for numerous schools, parks, railway stations and tube stations in London.

There was a tradition of mosaics as public art in Birmingham, including a 1960s History of Snow Hill and Great Western Railway mural which once stood at St Chads Queensway – a later version of the original work is now outside Snow Hill Station.

The project is being organised by West Midlands Rail Executive and Transport for West Midlands, which is part of the West Midlands Combined Authority.

The pop-up session is being held at Perry Barr railway station between noon and 2pm on Sunday, 2 April. Further information is available on the West Midlands Rail Executive website.

Birchfield Big Local and Birchfield Library are also helping with the project and will be working with their networks of local residents, families, community and youth groups to create tiles.

When the mosaic is complete, it will be displayed as a lasting piece of art that represents the people, culture and area of Perry Barr.

The new Perry Barr Station opened last May following a £30 million redevelopment, which saw the old buildings replaced with a modern railway station and bus interchange.

Tom Painter, executive director WMRE and director of rail with TfWM, said: “We finished building the new Perry Barr Station almost a year ago now and it has already proved a fantastic asset for the area, with thousands of passengers using it every week.

“This community art will be the icing on the cake and offers local people the chance contribute to the building and help create the art which will be there for many years to come.”

A similar mosaic will be created for the new University station that is currently under construction.