Transported and Boston Borough Council have been working together on Boston Hero, a project which will celebrate our community’s unsung heroes in artwork to be placed on the side of Boston Borough Council’s fleet of refuse collection trucks. The nomination process has now closed, but the response was overwhelming. Nearly fifty nominations have been received and were wide ranging, including individuals, committees and groups, and with varying roles from cleaners to health care workers, and teachers to performers. Thank you to everyone who took the time to nominate someone. Reading all the nominations was an amazing experience, and it clearly showed how much we have to be proud of in Boston!
Artist Sarah Brown was planning to use nominations as inspiration for the twelve artworks, each showing a person doing the role or activity they had been nominated for; but due to the fantastic response, she has had to rethink her original strategy of focusing on one role per artwork. In the past few weeks, she has met with as many of the nominated people as possible, to find out more details about what they do and different ways they could be represented. The finished artworks will now have Boston Borough backdrops with multiple roles depicted within that backdrop as appropriate. Some unfortunately won’t be able to be included purely due to the constraints this presents, but although they won’t be represented on a lorry, they will get something from Sarah to celebrate their nomination.
Sarah Brown, artist, said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting with as many of the nominees as I have been able to in the time I have spent in Boston. It was lovely to meet with people who have such a passion for making the borough a better place to live. Whilst I spent time with each of the groups of people I got a great sense of community spirit and effort put into the keeping the place clean and tidy as well as including sections of the community that may otherwise become isolated. I have also spent some time with a small section of the many council departments and had not until now appreciated how many of them go above and beyond what is expected to assist the community and how many cross overs there are between voluntary roles within the area and the council.
The huge number of nominations has been overwhelming and I have tried to incorporate as many of the different sectors as I can. It has been impossible to meet with and include everybody but each role has been very much in mind whilst I have been gathering inspiration and drawing.”
The lorries are due to be wrapped with the new artwork in late September, and on Thursday 8 October there is a one-off opportunity to see them all together in Boston Market Place from 4.30pm to 6.30pm. When completed, the designs will also be available to view on the Transported website along with details of the roles that are being depicted on each – so keep your eye out for your favourite and read the story behind the art!
