A mural celebrating Sutton’s diversity is to be placed in the town centre this year.
Sutton Council will be working with local artists and diverse groups to create the mural to promote inclusion amongst the different BAME communities, which make up 23% of Sutton’s residents.
It is planned to be put on the wall of Sutton College above the St Nicholas Way bus stop by this summer.
Councillor Steve Cook, Lead Member for Cultural Services and Leisure, said: “We wanted to celebrate the diversity within our borough with the BAME community and races worldwide.
“It is important because we have so many diverse communities within our borough and they all contribute in such a positive way so we wanted to help bring everyone together especially at this time during the pandemic.”
Mr Cook said the plans were well-received by the public, BAME councillors and leaders of black communites whom he spoke to.
He added that the death of George Floyd by US police and the Black Lives Matter movement spurred the council’s approval for the mural as the council where involved in its meetings and events last summer.
During the committee meeting, Jan Underhill, the council’s director of wellbeing, said: “Part of the reason for this is to celebrate our community in Sutton but it is also to show a commitment and respond to what happened globally last year, the Black Lives Matter movement and the horrific murder of George Floyd.
“It is not going to be easy but we wanted to set a tight deadline for ourselves.”
The plan originally started as a small project but grew once it received full-party funding approval for a capital budget and the council made it into a Cultural Services lead project.
The Environment and Sustainable Transport committee meeting approved the plans on the 28th January at the cost of £9,750.
The design of the mural will be created over the next two months by a broad range of local artists and the installation is expected to be completed by this summer.
Main image courtesy of Google StreetView.
