Full steam ahead for competition winner

Published by Debs Ramsden for Nottingham Community Housing Association Ltd in Housing

The winner of a competition to produce new artwork for Loughborough has been announced.  

Giles Meakin, a graduate of Loughborough University in 2000, has put forward a piece called 'Tornado'.  This is a topographical representation of the steam engine that was recently built in conjunction with The Great Central Railway.  To create a sense of depth elements of the piece will be cut out of plastic and layered on top of each other and then given a paint finish. 

The art installation will be featured on the multi-million pound Eastern Gateway residential development..  This comprises 59 houses and 32 apartments along with a major new public road called Station Boulevard, adjacent to Loughborough railway station. 

The artwork will be mounted at high level on the external walls of one of the apartment buildings fronting Station Boulevard and will be one of the first sights to greet rail passengers to Loughborough. 

As the artwork will be sited on some of their homes, Nottingham Community Housing Association (NCHA), which has more than 300 homes in the town, offered local tenants a chance to sit on the panel.  Sidings Park Area Resident's Association was also represented. 

Following the announcemen Mr. Meakin said: "I've done mural work in the past but this is my largest project to date.  I'm very much looking forward to the challenge of creating this piece.  It's not often an artist gets to do work which will have a significant effect on a large number of people.  With that in mind, I hope that the residents of Eastern Gateway and the people of Loughborough will like the end result."