Artist hopes to encourage young people to follow Covid-19 rules with new Northampton car park artwork

The artist behind a new mural painted of a Northampton town centre car park hopes it will encourage young people to stick to Covid-19 rules.

Semilong Youth Group was challenged to come up with an idea of how they could encourage others to follow the rules after reporting youngsters were finding it difficult.

Ayesha's design of a cheery globe with a mask on, called Mask Up, Stay Safe, impressed the youth group leaders enough to be chosen as the artwork for the Mayorhold Car Park.

“I designed the world mural to remind people that it’s not just us who are in a pandemic, it’s the whole world and we need to remember we are all in it together," the 18-year-old said.

“It’s really cool that my design has been painted."

The artwork forms part of the work done by the Young Ambassadors Programme, a body of work commissioned by the two Northamptonshire councils to recognise and address the needs of young people during the pandemic.

The programme has empowered young people, taking the lead from them and their experiences, enabling them to identify and be involved in communicating appropriate messaging to their peers, according to the council.

The ongoing scheme has partnered with organisations already working with young people such as Free2Talk who runs the virtual Semilong group, as well as many other youth outreach programmes.