BURGER KING’S LANDLORD ‘DELETES’ CORNISH COMMUNITY’S HEART-FELT ARTWORK
Young people and the community throughout Newquay in Cornwall have been left reeling after the landlords of Newquay’s Burger King ‘deleted’ a major community artwork. Late last week, under the cover of darkness, it is understood that painters instructed by the landlords working with the new owners of Burger King UK, whitewashed a major mural recently created to support Newquay Safe, an ongoing campaign to address the many complex and varied issues that the town is currently facing.
Just over a year ago, two teenagers died in Newquay and since then the local police, residents, councils and businesses been working together to promote safety and minimise the risks to young people. The My A´th Kar Newquay group has been financially supported by FEAST, an Arts Council and Cornwall Council partnership programme to make great art happen across Cornwall, and a number of local businesses who have stepped in to offer invaluable sponsorship.
My A´th Kar Newquay means ‘I Love You Newquay’ in Cornish and in the last six months the group of enthusiastic and committed teenagers have created and led their own voluntary project to find fresh, standout ways of projecting a positive message about Newquay. Their stated aim is to transform local eyesores and use their artwork and campaigning methods to show why they love living in the town, and to encourage locals and visitors alike to treat Newquay with respect and to behave appropriately.
The crew was delighted when the Newquay Burger King team got in touch to offer a huge, dirty wall space on the edge of their store and once all formal permissions were in place, the enthusiastic team got to work. Hundreds of hours of creativity, painting and lobbying time were put in.
This was all done voluntarily by the committed young people and their appeals to the local community and calls through the media brought children and adults alike down to help put their painting skills to good use. Undeterred by the freezing weather, the mural was completed in late December and has been so well received that a host of local businesses and civic organisations have offered further walls as canvases.
However the move by the landlord of Burger King to simply ‘delete’ the initial mural has cost the project the equivalent of at least £3,000 and has immediately wiped out all of the hours of energy, time and commitment that hundreds of local people have put in as well as causing obvious upset and anger. These sentiments are already being communicated on social networks.
Sarah Pym of the Real Ideas Organisation, the leading body helping facilitate My A’th Kar Newquay, says, “It is our understanding that the national owner of Burger King changed half way through our project and that the building’s landlords and the new owners have decided that the mural had to go. The work of all these amazing young people has been so well received and the local Newquay Burger King team has been majorly supportive throughout this work and behind us all the way. This project is all about these youngsters communicating the type of respect that they want people should show for Newquay so these whitewashing actions couldn’t be more ironic or appalling.”
Sarah continues, “We are now appealing to the landlords and Burger King nationally to pay back the My A’th Kar Newquay costs of more than £3,000 for this work so that we can recreate the fabulous design on another site. However no amounts of money can bring back the time, work, energy and thinking that the young people and local community put into actually painting the piece. This is the greatest shame but these young people are fired up and just want to keep their campaign strong.”
Fifteen year old Kasha Miller is one of the MAKN team members reacted to the news of the whitewash saying, “This is very upsetting for all of the My A´th Kar group because we all put a lot of time into that painting. I honestly think this is totally out of line, the mural wasn´t an eyesore for these companies - it actually made them more popular and we thought better of them as companies for it. It´s totally unfair as well because we all put a lot of time and effort into and it´s such a shame to see that they just destroyed it in a matter of hours as they have now painted over it in all white. It´s so annoying that they have and after all the positive feedback we received from starting this project is absolutely appalling.”
The MAKN crew is appealing to the community to show their support for their campaign by following these steps:
- Go onto facebook and show your support by joining the My A’th Kar Newquay group
- Make comments (without any swearing please) on the relevant pages
- Go to the Burger King UK facebook, join and comment (again without swearing please)
- Get involved with future My A’th Kar Newquay campaigns and do all you can to support the young team.
The opinions and info here is a reflection of the views and opinions of the My A’th Kar Newquay team and not any of the other organisations. Please contact them directly should you need further comment. Thank you from the My A’th Kar Newquay team for taking the time to read and to support our campaign.
