A vibrant mural painted by Independent Living Skills (ILS) students at Coleg Gwent has taken pride of place in a public garden.
The piece entitled ‘Save our Environment’ features brightly painted birds, animals and people and is now on display in the recently restored Terence Gardens Welfare Park in Brynmawr.
Two groups of ASDAN ILS students learning about the environment spent several months working on the mural, made of recycled MDF board. The students, studying at Coleg Gwent’s Blaenau Gwent Learning Zone campus in Ebbw Vale, added material including shells to create different textures around the theme of protecting the global environment, and unveiled their finished work earlier this year.
Terence Hughes, Chair of Terence Garden Welfare Park in Brynmawr, said:
“The mural has brought vibrant colour to the gardens and an important message to embrace our global environment. We’re delighted that Coleg Gwent students’ work has played a part in the refurbishment of the gardens, which are Brynmawr’s heritage, and we are sure that visitors to the gardens will enjoy it too.”
Coleg Gwent Learning Support Technician Anne Parker got students involved in the garden through her own work in the community project, she said:
“Students have done a fantastic job and we’re really proud of their beautiful mural.”
Students at the Learning Zone are now producing a series of paintings on canvas for the ‘lodge’ in the gardens, using the theme of local wildlife.
The groups will also have the opportunity to try their growing skills when raised vegetable beds are built in the gardens.
The Learning Zone is supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funded by Welsh Government.
