University Students Create a Mural with a Musical Message for the Worcester Community
Students spent days crafting a 55-meter-long mural along a bustling thoroughfare in Worcester, utterly revitalizing a once graffiti-laden wall within the city. This artistic endeavor unfolded along the pathway connecting Hardwicke Close and Hylton Road, adjacent to the newly erected Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Building, which proudly houses the Three Counties Medical School.
The mural, coloured mostly in shades of blue and pink, features the words “The Music Is In The Air, Take As Much As You Want”, a quote by world famous Worcestershire composer Edward Elgar.
Students from the University of Worcester were joined by the internationally renowned artist Rob Draper as they went through the full process of creating the piece, from planning to design and completion. 
Rob Draper said: “It has been a brilliant project and a long journey, but the response from the public has been incredible. Younger people, older people, pretty much everyone who walked past was stopping and saying how much of a difference the work has made to this area to have something so bright and uplifting.”
Rob continued: “The students have been absolutely great; they’ve all brought something to the project of their own.”
Throughout the process, the artists welcomed students from schools such as Regency High School in Worcester to join them at different intervals, extending invitations for participation in the painting efforts.
Inclusivity has played a significant role in the project’s ethos, highlighted by the inclusion of a poem authored by a university student. This poem has been transcribed into Braille and positioned at both ends of the mural, ensuring accessibility for visually impaired individuals.
It was the idea of Cosmin Popescu, who said: “It’s very exciting and rewarding, and I wasn’t expecting to see the work make such a difference in such a short amount of time. The transformation has been incredible, especially in that it has such a good message for the community, and people walking by have all said how amazing it is.”
Nicole Cooper is studying illustration and said: “It has been an amazing opportunity, and it has been a lot of fun! The hardest part was researching and knowing what to do, a project like this designed from scratch has its challenges but we’ve had a lot of positive reaction to it already.”
Professor Lisa Stansbie is the University of Worcester’s Pro Vice Chancellor, Education, Culture and Society. She said: “The University has a longstanding history of transforming the riverside area of the city of Worcester, and to add this unique, vibrant and culturally significant artwork to that contribution has been fantastic.”
She continued: “For our students to work with a professional artist of the calibre of Rob Draper has been an incredible opportunity for them, and it has been great to see how hard they’ve worked to create a piece that has already attracted such praise from members of the community.”
