New mural celebrates town's diversity and unity

The new mural on Westgate House was shaped by people from across the world

The charity behind a new mural celebrating diversity said it hoped the work would become a "landmark" for the town.

Ipswich Community Media (ICM) in partnership with Art Eat Events received funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to create a new piece of art at Westgate House in Ipswich.

The project's team worked with 30 people of different backgrounds and nationalities from the town, including refugees, to help form ideas for the piece before artists turned them into the final design.

Anjali Sule, one of the co-founders of Ipswich Community Media, said it was "beautiful" to see the mural come together.

Anjali Sule from ICM said it was "really beautiful" to see the workshopped ideas come to life as part of the mural

"Why I feel this is important is because it is giving us a landmark," Ms Sule said.

"Now people will recognise us with this mural, that ICM has a beautiful mural showing the inclusivity and different nationalities coming together and doing something together.

"This is definitely going to become the landmark for ICM for sure," she added.

Atma said the mural was a "positive offering" to Ipswich

ICM said it held workshops so that the design would reflect the stories, roots and shared journeys of those who call Ipswich home.

The mural's painter, an artist known as Atma, said he used what was gathered at the workshops to create the final design.

He said it was "crucial" to him that it portrayed a positive image.

"Let's not talk negatively, let's talk positively. Let's bring beauty, joy, a bit of magic so we open curiosity and we create dialogue," he said.

"To me this is a way to have good conversation."

The mural coincides with the opening of a new cafe called Roots on the ground floor of Westgate House

Painting assistant Leo Vanmegen believed the mural added "a little bit of beauty" to the area.

He added that celebrating the town's diversity was "really important".

"Ipswich wouldn't really survive without its cultural diversity," he explained.

"Ipswich is a town of vast cultural diversity and its strengths are that there are so many people from so many backgrounds, so it's really important that side of the town is promoted as much as it can be," he added.

Leo Vanmegen hoped the mural would help people celebrate Ipswich's cultural diversity

Iona Hodgson, the co-founder of Art Eat Events which makes community murals, said that the organisation felt it was important "that we don't just come in and put art on walls that's whatever we want".

"This is really about the community sharing something that they want to share and saying something that they want to say," she continued.

"Then it becomes a gift because people who walk past it will hopefully enjoy it.

"It's about giving people voice who may not have voice, it's about decorating the building to some extent and making Ipswich a more vibrant and beautiful place," she added.

Iona Hodgson said the project was a "joyful counterpoint" to "divisive narratives about migration"