City Art Trail and Augmented Reality Experience

Tim Fowler

Tim Fowler is a Leicester based artist working out of StudionAme - an artist studio/collective in Leicester’s cultural Quarter. Tim creates bright exuberant portraiture paintings using acrylic, enamel oil, spray paint, ink, oil stick and marker pens to create partially recognisable images distorted with strong colour and abstract elements. His main interest is the colours and their balance and placement, rather than the subject.

Alice Hawkins and the Suffragette movement

Alice Hawkins, Leicester’s most famous suffragette, was born in 1863; she was one of nine children and had been born in to extreme poverty. From the age of 13, she worked making boots and shoes, a career that took her to the factory of Equity Shoes as a shoe machinist. Being a mother to five and a wife to Alfred Hawkins, she joined the Independent Labour Party in 1894, and through this organisation, met Sylvia Pankhurst – one of the best-known suffragettes of her time – where they formed a friendship, especially after being imprisoned together.

107 Granby Street Leicester LE1 6FB

George Sfougaras

George works internationally, with a network of partners. He uses symbols and metaphors to create visual narratives. Using archival research, photography and first-hand observation, his art explores the subtle and overt ways that people’s lives and identities are affected by national context and history, myths, and points in time. His work exists at the intersection of art, politics, geography and culture with the outcomes expressed in 2D, 3D, printed media and film.

Sir Alec Jeffreys and DNA fingerprinting

It seems Sir Alec Jeffreys’ curiosity with all things science was written in his DNA. Jeffreys’ love of science flourished while he was at school, starting at Luton Grammar and graduating from the University of Oxford. He moved to the University of Leicester’s Department of Genetics in 1977 and this is where, in 1984, he had his eureka moment, a moment that has forever revolutionised Forensic Science. He had stumbled upon a method of showing variations between individuals’ DNA – inventing and developing the concept of DNA fingerprinting

35 Belvoir Street LE1 6SJ

Sarah Kirby

Sarah moved to Leicester in 1993. Her linocuts are created between her home studio and the Leicester Print Workshop in the Cultural Quarter. Her inspiration comes from the world around her - the allotments, the garden and of course the ever changing city where her home is. Over the last 15 years she has created a series of linocuts of significant, interesting and beautiful Leicester buildings which is ongoing and ever growing and informed by a culture of pedestrianism - observing, experiencing and interacting with the city environment while walking about daily life.

Postcards from Leicester - the architecture of our city

Leicester is one of the oldest cities in England, with a history going back at least two millennia, including being occupied by the Romans for more than 400 years. As such the city has a wide variety of architectural styles.

The range of artworks you see featured here show a cross-section of some of the most iconic city centre buildings. From the timber framed Guildhall, with the earliest part dating from around 1390, to the flamboyant Art Nouveau facade of The Turkey Cafe on Granby Street, the historical architecture of Leicester is as diverse as its people.

36 Market Street LE1 6DN

Christina Wigmore

Christina’s design process involves building layers of imagery created by projecting light sources through everyday objects which are then woven together and digitally manipulated to create mixed media textile pieces and prints. With a DIY/Punk attitude to exploring what can be created from what you have to hand, re-using materials and finding alternative ways to print, weave and construct textiles. Inspiration comes from what’s happening in society and the unexpected and absurd in life, art, performance and film. Her work also explores emotional attachment to textiles and objects, the psychology of nostalgia and the sense of wellbeing experienced from reconnecting with objects and fashion from the past.

The fashion industry in Leicester - ‘Leicester clothes the world’

Leicester has a rich textile, footwear design, and manufacturing heritage. Due to the magnitude of this industry, in the 1930s it was named the second richest city in Europe, and the slogan ‘Leicester clothes the world’ was seen nationally and internationally.As part of the Street Stories project, De Montfort University Fashion and Textiles students were set a past and future design brief around Leicester’s textile heritage. The project incorporates research on factories, machinery, production materials and key moments in technology breakthroughs, and one of the artworks is featured in the windows here.

37 – 39 Market Street LE1 6DN

Soft Touch Arts

An award winning Leicestershire charity, established in 1986, Soft Touch uses arts, media and music activities to make positive life changes for disadvantaged young people by supporting them to develop creative, social and employability skills. For young people who lack opportunities or have challenges in their lives it can be hard to look forward to a positive future. Their projects help them get back on track when they’ve gone wrong, build the confidence and resilience to change negative or risky behaviours, and progress to lead more fulfilling lives.

Art and Music as rehabilitation: Unlocked exhibition

The range of paintings and drawings featured in the windows you see here formed part of the ‘Unlocked’ exhibition. The second of three exhibitions as part of the Unlocked programme, the exhibition was created by prisoners at HMP Leicester, HMP Stocken and other regional prisons, as well as those serving community sentences. Of course many victims and members of society don’t want to see prisoners enjoying themselves - playing music or making art, but creativity is proven to play an important role in an inmate’s rehabilitation in many ways.

16 Market Street, Leicester, LE1 6DN

Phil Hackett

Phil creates multi-media artworks from his studio in Leicester. His inspiration is the natural world, architecture, the human body and the electromagnetic spectrum. His art is process driven, so choices made during the making and what they represent are an important part of his finished work. He uses negative space, redaction & intervention to disorientate perspective and question the originality and ownership of an image using paint, ink, print, projection, film, photography and sculpture to produce stunning vistas.

Professor Ken Pounds and X-Ray Astronomy

The University of Leicester gained Professor Ken Pounds as Assistant Lecturer in 1960; little did they know that employing the Yorkshire born and London taught Pounds would lead to a long and enviable record of involvement in space science. The former Head of Physics and Astronomy, and Emeritus Professor of Space Physics has played a pivotal role in University of Leicester’s success story.

14 Market Street Leicester LE1 6DN

Lucy Stevens

Lucy creates multimedia artworks from her studio in Leicester. She takes inspiration from the colour palette and sounds of the natural world to celebrate the value and beauty of nature. Her work uses field recording and instinctive mark-making techniques using paint, pastel, spray paint, photography and digital illustration onto paper to produce striking portraits of birds and their songs.

Sir David Attenborough and Endangered birds on The Red List

Growing up on the grounds of the University of Leicester, Sir David Attenborough, Britain’s favourite naturalist, remembers his childhood in Leicestershire fondly. He explored the vast fields and streams surrounding Leicester, only a short bike ride from his home, and collected many stones, natural specimens, and fossils to create his own museum, for which he still has today.

15 Market Street Leicester LE1 6DN

Danielle Vaughan

From her studio based in Leicester, Danielle describes being an artist as a low key archaeologist and budding detective deriving inspiration from people and their stories. By repurposing others’ discarded materials, primarily magazines and ephemeral objects, Danielle’s collage based portraits build layers of narrative to portray as accurately as possible each sitter with their perceived image and beyond their persona. Her portraits attempt to peel back the layers of frontage and facade in a world that increasingly resembles the stage setting of The Emperor’s New Clothes.

Joe Orton and the LGBTQ+ movement

One of Britain’s most groundbreaking writers, Joe Orton was born and raised in Leicester, growing up on the Saffron Lane estate. He graced this world with rebellion – sexual and otherwise – and dark humour, writing plays that shocked, outraged, and amused audiences. The word Ortonesque means a dark, yet farcical cynicism.

St Martins Square Unit 28 Leicester LE1 5DF

Joe Nixon and Ami-Lou Harrison

Joe Nixon is the co-founder and Creative Director of Leicester based design and advertising agency Arch Creative who have organised the Street Stories project. Joe was inspired to write a story for his young niece and nephews, who were finding it difficult to understand why they were trapped at home during lockdown. The book has entertained them and given them hope for a better world when the crisis is over. Ami-Lou Harrison has created the beautifully joyful illustrations which perfectly capture the uplifting message of positivity. From Beavers and Badgers to Rabbits and Hares, Ami has illustrated a wide range of woodland creatures who mischievously play together in the empty streets and school playground.

www.archcreative.co.uk / www.amilouharrison.com

Fearless Fox & Daring Deer

The effects of the Coronavirus pandemic around the world have been devastating, and we continue to feel the repercussions and global impact. There have been some environmental silver linings however. During lockdown urban wildlife throughout Leicester, the UK, and the world, have taken to the empty streets and cities. Some of them are in search of food, but most it seems have just been exploring new territories, playing and having fun. Inspired by this, The Fearless Fox & Daring Deer, is a rhyming children’s picture book, which has been published by the NHS to raise money for the NHS.

To donate and get your book visit www.fearlessfox.co.uk

St Peter's Square, High Cross Shopping Centre, LE1 4SD