A series of new artworks were unveiled last week at Halewood Environment Centre and New Hutte Neighbourhood Centre.
The works were created by community benefit society, Plastic Shed in collaboration with the Halewood community and local primary schools, and were funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of the Knowsley at 50 project.
Throughout the second half of last year, Halewood residents collected and donated more than 60,000 plastic lids to create the artwork. Lids in every size and colour were then sorted by a team of local volunteers, including school children from Halewood.
A series of workshops took place at Holy Family Primary School, Plantation Primary School, St Mark’s Primary School and Yew Tree Primary School where the children helped to shape the artwork designs with Plastic Shed’s Caitlin Marie Atherton.
There are eight artworks in all, depicting some of the animals and insects that can be commonly found in Halewood’s many green spaces.
Cllr Shelley Powell Cabinet Member for communities and Neighbourhoods said:
“I am absolutely delighted with these bold and bright new artworks for Halewood, which perfectly reflect our pride in our stunning environment. I’m sure they will be much enjoyed by visitors to Halewood Park Triangle and the New Hutte Neighbourhood Centre.”
“Creating these beautiful artworks has been a real community effort. It wouldn’t have been possible for Caitlin to create them without the donations of bottle lids, and help from all of the community volunteers, who helped to sort through thousands of lids in order for these artworks to come to life. And of course, our local school children whose ideas and designs helped to shape the final artworks.”
Caitlin Marie Atherton of Plastic Shed said: “Our mission at Plastic Shed is to bring people together to reduce plastic pollution by offering creative, hands-on ways for communities to reuse plastic waste.
“This has been such a wonderful project to work on, the enthusiasm of the local school children and community volunteers has been outstanding, and you can see how much pride everyone has in the natural beauty of Halewood. I hope the local community are incredibly proud of the parts they have played to bring these artworks to life, and that they are enjoyed for years to come.”
