My name is Grace, and I am currently in my third year studying English Literature and I was one of three interns in the Collaborative Research Internship on the Project “From Mosaics to Pixels: Eduardo Paolozzi in the Midlands” led by Dr Dorothy Butchard.
When I began working as an intern on the research project “From Mosaics to Pixels: Eduardo Paolozzi in the Midlands”, I had very little knowledge of Paolozzi or his works, and as I write this blog post at the conclusion of my experience, I am grateful to share all that I have learnt. With a focus on Eduardo Paolozzi’s 1983 mosaic artworks at the Kingfisher Centre in Redditch, the project aims to connect local people with the public art that surrounds them, often going overlooked. As a commuter student who nearly every day for two years passing the Farraday statue outside University station without ever really looking up and considering its significance, I am also personally guilty of this ignorant attitude to public art. Thankfully, through this project I have learnt the importance of taking my time and looking up a bit more and taking a second glance at these works which are otherwise overlooked in the hustle and bustle of daily life.
Ironically, the Farraday statue was one of Paolozzi’s final public works and in many ways this anecdote distils the focus of the research project into the mosaics of Redditch. The main goal of the project is to reintegrate Paolozzi’s large mosaic artwork back into Redditch’s cultural community and ensure its place and importance in the larger sphere of public art culture. As an intern this took the form of researching, planning, and writing a blog post for the project website, ‘Mosaics to Pixels’, on a topic of our own choosing, relating to Paolozzi and his mosaic works. I became fascinated by the craftsmanship and engineering involved with such large, substantial pieces of public art and the logistics surrounding the creation and installation of them. This led me to research Paolozzi’s much larger and more widely known mosaic works in the London tube station at Tottenham Court Road and I wrote my article on this topic.
The internship culminated in a community event for heritage open days held right underneath the Redditch mosaics. Getting the opportunity to take all I had learnt in my research and share it with the local community whilst also learning more information from those who had grown up around the works and even watched them go up was priceless. From quizzes to colouring books the open day had endless accessible avenues for the community to engage with these vast mosaics and engage they did! It was truly amazing to see the team’s dedication pay off and how the initiative attracted the interest and support of the community.
All in all, I had a fabulous experience as a collaborative research intern and would highly recommend it for any other students who can the chance to apply. The experience shaped my summer and has given me a chance to use research skills from my degree alongside learning new and innovative ways in which they can be put into practise.
Grace Bailey, BA English