Students ‘cannot believe’ their Bury St Edmunds street art banners have been removed from arc shopping centre after complaints

A teacher and artist says she feels ‘deeply disappointed’ that students’ mural banners have been removed from a town centre location due to complaints.

Street art is often controversial, but less than a week after being unveiled the street art mural banners by A-level students from Abbeygate Sixth Form College have been taken down from the arc shopping centre in Bury St Edmunds.

The work, which was located at Hanchet Square, linked in with a wider arts and education project on crime and punishment in and around Bury and responded to pieces from the current contemporary art exhibition, Urban Frame: Mutiny in Colour, at Moyse’s Hall Museum in the town.

However, artist Louise Gridley, project lead for the crime and punishment outreach project and a teacher of visual arts at Abbeygate Sixth, said she found out on Monday that her students’ work had been removed from the arc because of complaints.

Speaking of his decision to remove the banners, arc centre manager Allan Hassell said his team had received complaints from upset visitors and residents ‘within minutes’ on July 12, and added it was a family environment.

“I apologise to the students,” he said.

Ms Gridley, who collaborated with the Abbeygate Sixth students on the arts project, said she was ‘deeply disappointed’ the work had been removed and it was ‘such a shame’ for the students involved.

Speaking of the banners, she said: “It’s about social justice. it’s about students learning about what happened in the past, people who lived here, and then making judgements about it.

“For example, on one of the murals there’s a picture of a wolf and the wolf was there to represent authority and the fact it was overbearing and the punishments were too harsh.

“None of the students were glamorising what had happened, but telling the stories that happened to real people.”

She said the work drew on the crime and punishment collection at Moyse’s Hall Museum, adding: “We cannot rewrite history unfortunately, but we can acknowledge it and discuss it and that’s how change happens. That’s important for students to explore.”

She said they ‘didn’t want to offend anybody’ and were just retelling the history they had learned.

She feels removing the banners ‘sends the wrong message’ to the young people: ‘you can have a voice, but it might be censored’.

As a student herself, Ms Gridley said her artwork in Sheffield in 1997, a spoof chocolate campaign on billboards, was censored by Cadbury.

Referring to the Bury St Edmunds banners, she said: “I think if it was in somewhere like Cambridge or Brighton it wouldn’t have happened.”

She said her students had been ‘really surprised’ and ‘couldn’t believe’ their work had been taken down.

“They cannot believe the voices of a few are outweighing the voices of the many who are silent that don’t have issue with it,” she said.

Mr Hassell said there were more than 10 complaints about the street art banners, and people had also approached arc security whilst on-site as well.

He said: “The banners were put up last Wednesday and within minutes my team received calls from upset visitors and residents, with further calls and emails subsequently before I returned from holiday on Monday.

“Some customers and residents found the images genuinely distressing, so I had to take the decision to remove the banners on Monday and look at new locations, which I am currently doing with the Apex and West Suffolk Council.

“I know that Lou and her students have put a lot of hard work and time in to creating the banner artwork, but we have had to consider the artwork in the context of its location, so we’re hopeful that it will be presented in a new location where it will form part of a wider theme.

“We have worked successfully with Lou and her students at Abbeygate previously, showcasing their artwork on a vacant unit in Auction Street, plus featured her 3D relief sculptures on the Apex in St Andrew’s Street South, and I’m sorry that we could not accommodate the artwork on this occasion.”

He admitted neither he nor the arc team had seen the artwork before it went up.

David Gartland, principal of Abbeygate Sixth Form College, said: “The students worked so hard on this project and we understand that a small number of residents found the murals upsetting and have asked for the artwork to be removed, which has happened.

“Since their removal, we have had productive talks with two organisations (Moyse’s Hall and The Apex) to see if they can house the murals, so we are hopeful of a resolution quite soon.

“Ultimately, art is subjective, but it is about creating a conversation and a debate, so on that front the project has been a big success.”

Ms Gridley said the intention had been for the banners to be on display at Moyse’s Hall, and added if it was possible for them to be there, where they would be in context, ‘that would be perfect’.

The project, which was due to be on display at the arc until October, was part-funded by councillor locality funding from West Suffolk Council.

An information board had accompanied the banners to explain about the project.

The two mural banners that the ones at the arc were based on will be on display at the Guildhall in Thetford over the summer holidays, along with the wearable sculptures that were part of a showcase at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, before returning to Abbeygate Sixth Form.