From bright spaces to the creation of powerful poetry around the city, Crown Paints helped bring Manchester International Festival to life with a series of projects.
As a member of the North West creative community, Crown donated products for commissions at the event including ‘Manchester Street Poem’ which featured musician Karl Hyde from the band Underworld painting words around the shell of a disused shop in the city.
Billed as one of the festival’s most high-profile events, Karl worked with people who have experience of homelessness to create the installation.
Gemma Saunders, Executive Coordinator of the Manchester International Festival, said: “Manchester International Festival would like to thank Crown Paints for their generous donation of paint to the Manchester Street Poem event.
“This donation helped enormously to realise the project, which has been co-created by Underworld and individuals with personal experience of homelessness.”
Crown Paints’ other work at the festival was hard to miss.
Picnic benches, bars and DJ booths which popped up in Albert Square as part of its transformation into Festival Square – the event’s ‘home in the heart of the city’- all sported bright colours to create an on-trend backdrop to the celebrations.
Students from the Manchester School of Art led the street design programme, building the furniture in a series of workshops before taking advantage of the opportunity to put their own personality into the display, choosing a range of colours and designs for the decoration.
Sadolin Superdec was used for this colourful project and Crown Trade Matt Vinyl for the Street Poem commission.
Debbie Orr, Crown Paints’ Marketing Manager for trade brands, which has its headquarters in Darwen, Lancashire, said: “Manchester International Festival is one of the world’s most dynamic and respected arts festivals and we were delighted to support such an important and creative event.
“We’ve been given a superb platform to display personality and the impact of colour to great effect.”
