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Art on the Move

Date uploaded: May 18, 2015

Ten lorries have been transformed into mobile artworks celebrating Lincolnshire landscapes, as part of an innovative partnership between an arts programme and a haulage company. 'Transported' is an arts programme based in Boston and South Holland, in South Lincolnshire. It is funded by Creative People and Places from Arts Council England, a funding scheme which targets areas of the country where people are less likely to engage with the arts.

As the name suggests, Transported is all about the concept of ‘transporting’: transporting art to where people naturally meet, such as workplaces and town centres, transporting artists to more rural communities, and – as in this project – literally transporting art, through custom wrapping of lorries and turning them into moving canvasses.

Working with Lincolnshire based haulage company FreshLinc, Transported commissioned artist Alisha Miller to come up with ten new artworks in consultation with local people. She drew upon their stories and memories to create the digital designs for each one, going out with farmers, picking gangs, and others. The result is ten, forty foot long mobile canvasses, each focusing on a different landscape – from wide open skies and fields to famous landmarks and bridges. The quote that inspired the design is on the back of each lorry.

Alisha Miller, artist, said: "My public arts practice aims to blur the boundaries between what is usually understood to be an advertising space and instead using it as a space for art. I’ve been creating vinyl and digital drawings and paintings on articulated trucks, lorries, dustbin lorries, buses and public spaces since winning Year Of The Artist in 2000 when I created Transit Art. So I was thrilled to be commissioned."

"In my quest to take art to the public I have discovered that the public want to recognise or have a familiarity with the image somehow. On a motorway or busy street it has to have a sudden impact as it drives by you. If it’s not an advert then people always question, ‘Well what’s it for then?’. Then they question what it’s about which then leads them to experience the artwork. I enjoy engaging with people in the work place: these enormous landscape drawings are work environments and locations suggested by farmers, pickers and packers, and office staff from FreshLinc and Lincolnshire Field products. From broccoli picking at sunrise, to the industrial landscape of Boston Port, these images reflect local heritage and life".

A further commission has just been released as part of this project, to create another set of designs for a further ten FreshLinc lorries. Whereas the first commission focused on engaging the wider community, the second will explore working more closely with FreshLinc’s workforce, taking them through the commissioning process. For more information about this commission click here. The deadline for applications of interest is 5pm on Friday 12 June.

To find out more about the Transported project click here, or call the office on 01406 701006.