"Nature all around us"

A new community art project around Bitterne Station
Funded by SWR Customer and Communities Improvement Fund 2023/24 and led by Friends of Bitterne Station "Nature all around us" is a new project coming to our community.
It is delivered in partnership with Friends of Cobbett Road Library, Three Rivers Rail Partnership and Bitterne Manor Primary School. 

We will work with local artist Local artist Joanna Rose Tidey. Her outdoor paintings (that can be seen around Sholing) are vibrant and colourful reflecting her enthusiasm for wildlife and nature.
Over the next year, Joanna will create 10 art installations around our community. ​
We will send updates as the project progresses.
If you want to find out more and keep up to date, visit ​ www.facebook.com/friendsbitternestation

First mural completed (10/07/2023)
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On Sunday 09/07/2023 Joanna has completed first mural of our art trail - an amazing butterfly, you can see photos of Joanna in action in our little gallery below, from a sad graffiti wall, to community engagement and an amazing butterfly being celebrated.

Second mural completed (18/07/2023)
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Work in progress photos
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Would you like to support our project?

Read below about our 'Butterflies fundraiser' and contribute to preserving and protecting Joanna's art work. 

SWR funding supports the project covering the cost of Joanna's work and materials for 10 wildlife art installations around our community. However, we did not include in the budget funds to protect the work with ANTI-GRAFFITI paint. This is essential to make sure the work of Joanna to improve our community is not wasted but very expensive (see here). So we decided to ask help to our community, with a creative fundraiser. We have a large wall to work on (leading to the railways pedestrian bridge by Chessel Bay) and we will cover it with butterflies (see example below, A4 size). Everyone can 'sponsor' a butterfly and for £10 they will see a butterfly appear on the wall with their chosen initials. You can buy a butterfly to celebrate a new baby born, remember someone, celebrate the birthday or big day of a friend. We will include the initial of a person on each butterfly.​
Each new butterfly will be posted on our facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/natureallaroundus) , so you will know when yours is fly out there. 
If you would like to sponsor a butterfly, please get in touch via our facebook page or via email (bitternestationhub@gmail.com). 
For transparancy, the accounts of the fundraiser will be shared here. We will update regularly this page listing the initials of people who sponsored a butterfly and how the funding are spent. We will use the funds for anti-graffiti paint, if we raise more money than, we will use anti-graffiti paint/coating in other walls around the community, to protect from future vandalism. 
Funds raised (19/07/2023): £90
1) LS and OS £20  2) E-MA and EB £20 3) ABI £10 4) T £10 5) NW £10 6) DG and AP £20 

Funds raised (17/07/2023): £70
1) DG and AP £20 2) IBJL £10  3)EM £10  4) AS £10 5) CG and JP  £20

Funds raised (16/07/2023)  £230
1) GM £10  2) SHD £10  3)KM £10  4) IL and AL £20 5)LJ CF and PF £30 6)MD £10 7) FAW £10 8) AJO £10 9) CF and KF £20 10) PC £10 11)MS £10 12) TJ £10 13) GJ £10
14) S & R £10 15) RS £10 16) PC £10 17) TS £10 18) PF and AF £20

Funds raised (13/07/2023): £140
1)  BB, EF, JF, JP and SF £50  2) EW £10  3)  SP and CR £20 4) CB £10 5) SCR £10 6) EFC £10 7) JW £10 8) OB RD £20 

Funds raised  (10/06/2023): £150
Thanks to everyone who contributed so far to our fundraisers, check the photos of your butterflies here on our website:
1) TGJ £10   2) RC,JP and LCP £30  3) S £10  4) GR and MR £20   5) EY and CY £20;  6) TD £10  7) CN and SH £20  8) JF and CM £20 9)  JIA £10
Picture
We have purchase the first order of anti-graffiti paint (2 tins for £344.97 see PDF receipt here).
It is hard to know how much wall we will be able to cover with this initial batch - but we will keep you posted on this or any future anti-graffiti paint we purchase with your support. 

'Nature all around us' bagdes: collect them all !

Photography Competition

Thanks to everyone who took part in our photography competition. You can see the winning photos in the video here below.

Competition winners collecting their prizes at Bitterne Station Photography exhibition

 Picture
​But which animals should we represent around our community?
To provide inspiration to Joanna for her drawing we are launching a community wildlife photo competition. 
Anyone can enter the photo competition, entering is simple but please respect these rules:
1) Each person can enter max 3 photos
2) The photo should represent local wildlife from in and around Southampton
(from insect in your garden, to birds on the river, from shy hedgehogs to local foxes).  
3) Please only submit original photos that you have taken recently (do not submit the work of others)
4) To submit your entry, download this form and email your photos

We will work with children at Bitterne Manor Primary to select 10 photos and 10 animals to represent our 'Nature all around us' . The authors of the final selected photos will be acknowledged in our webpages and will each receive as prize an A3 art print by Joanna Rose Tidey to keep.