Exciting news!
On 10th February I met Cleo Heard of Graffiti Academy at the Exeter Visual Arts Forum. We had loads of interests in common – art in the public domain, the environment, etc – and met up for a coffee last Tuesday. Cleo is a street artist, so when I showed her the Little Colouring Books she immediately thought about blowing them up!
Then things started moving quickly.
Cleo had a meeting already scheduled on the Thursday to talk to the Phoenix about refreshing the graffiti wall in the outside seating area. She got the go-ahead, so I started thinking about funding. I spoke to the City Council about grants on Friday, found out that they were meeting to consider Community Grants applications this afternoon, but would consider something at short notice. So over the weekend I put together what I consider to be a pretty awesome project, including some matched cash and in-kind funding, got the Phoenix to sign it off this morning (it had to be submitted by a community group), and sent it in.
And now I’ve got confirmation of a £1,700 grant from Exeter City Council that will make it happen! Just need to get a bit more matched funding, and we’re ready to go. All in less than a week!
