Peace wings community art installation unveiled
Middlesbrough CouncilA community artwork has been unveiled featuring a pair of wings supporting messages of peace on its feathers.
The #BoroPeaceWings has been installed in Captain Cook Square in Middlesbrough by Freestyle Community Projects, as part of a commission following unrest in the summer of 2024.
Director and artist Sarah Falconer said messages include: "Co-exist; Trans lives matter; Black lives matter; We are one family, we all live under the same sky; One body, one mind."
More than 100 members of the community contributed to the artwork through workshops to create the feathers, which Falconer said had been "really positive".
"A lot of people were saying, 'Oh this is what's needed, we need to come together and we need to be not against each other'," she said.
Falconer said contributors from across the area were asked to focus on "peace, what it means to them, something about their heritage, identity or just them as an individual".
"It's not until you look closely that you can see all the detail," she said.
People can take pictures in front of the art in a way that makes it look like they have wings.
Middlesbrough CouncilPulling it together was a "complicated process", Falconer said.
People initially used acrylic ink so the design would not run if the feathers ever got wet.
A photographer then took images and arranged them into the wings, before a Darlington company printed the final design on to metal, secured it to a frame and it was mounted on the wall.
The commission followed anti-immigration riots in Sunderland and across Teesside, sparked by misinformation surrounding the murders of three girls in Southport in 2024.
It was funded by the Postcode Neighbourhood Trust, and Middlesbrough Council supported the installation.
