Get Ready To Get The Brushes Going!! Posted on Monday, 22 November 2010 | 0 comments

We’re super delighted to let you know that Mat’s all ready to get super revving again and getting the My A’th Kar Newquay murals completed – BUT HE NEEDS YOUR HELP PLEASE!

Painting sessions with Mat McIvor will be happening at the wall at the side of Burger King on Station Approach on Wednesday 24^th November from 3pm until 5pm and from 11am until 5pm on Saturday 27^th November. PLEASE COME ALONG AND GIVE OF YOUR TIME. WRAP UP WARM!

We’re also urging you all to join Kasha’s campaign from last week and post up your pictures, film clips and words about the parts of Newquay you love and hate on the My A’th Kar Newquay Facebook (search for My A’th Kar Newquay on Facebook to find it) and to access the My A’th Kar blog at the link to the new blog. http://iloveyounewquay.blogspot.com/2010/11/our-newquay.html

Just to give you some updates:

In the last few weeks, the committed My A’th Kar Newquay crew have also been busy gathering inspiration for why they want to lobby for physical changes around the town. They’ve been out on the streets creating film excerpts and taking photos of the areas of the town they most love and those that they want to see transformed asap.

The project is also gathering momentum around the county with councillors, youth organisations and young people alike. One of the My A’th Kar Newquay team, Kasha Miller, recently gave a stunning presentation to over 100 people at the launch of the Cornish Young People’s Manifesto. She showed the gathered audience how Newquay is being perceived in the national media compared to how she sees the town she loves to live in. She also explained how she and her crew are keen to use their artwork to get other visiting young people to pay attention to their surroundings and to think about how they treat the street and how they behave. She received a resounding applause from the audience and was surrounded by people keen to know more after her presentation.

Sarah Pym of the Real Ideas Organisation, the lead organisation for the project, says, “My A’th Kar Newquay has taken on a life of its own and is being talked about in lots of different official circles as well as online. Kasha Miller gave a stunning presentation the other week and the guys have been out on the streets drumming up information and support about what people want to change around the town. Mat McIvor is keen to get the first stage of the Burger King mural completed asap and we’re really keen for people to come and pick up a brush and do their bit to change their town. Thanks to everyone involved as always!”

So come along on Wednesday or Saturday and please spread the word to all your mates, brothers, sisters, everyone you can think of so we can get a big posse going!

Our Newquay Posted on Saturday, 20 November 2010 | 1 comments

Hate: the Barracuda site

Love: Newquay Town Centre - it's been tidied up in recent years
and during the day it looks pretty good at this time of year

Hate: The Beachtrip Hotel - one of many run-down, ugly sites

Hate: the old Bus Station - still an eyesore

Love: Towan Beach. The surf, the views out to sea and across to the harbour.
Need we say more?

When you pass by somewhere everyday, it often becomes invisible. You're so used to seeing it that you forget that it's there.

We kicked off our new mini film/photo project by taking a walk around the town to revisit the spots we love and hate - and to capture what Newquay's really like on film and in photographs.

We met a number of people on our walk, who we chatted to about the project and what we're doing. Because it kept raining, people didn't want to hang around long enough to let us film them, but lots of people we spoke to said they thought Newquay needed to change.

"It's about time someone did something to make Newquay better." - Newquay resident

Well, that's exactly what we're trying to do. We should be back working on the Burger King mural next week, and that's just the start....

Here's what we found on our Newquay walk. Recognise any of these sites? What do you think about them? Which places would you add to the list? Join in the discussion and post your pictures and video on our Facebook page

Show us your Newquay! Posted on Monday, 15 November 2010 | 1 comments

We want to know what you think about places around Newquay....

The places you love. The places you hate. The places you'd love to get your hands on to transform. We want to hear about them all.

If enough people take part, we'll be able to get a good idea about what people living here really think about the place they live in - and it could help us get the best places the recognition they deserve, and get support behind us to make other places better.

If you want to get involved, send us your photos/videos of your top places and 'love to hate' spots around the town. You can upload them on Facebook or email them to fiona@excessenergycomms.com. I'd be great if you could include yourself/group of friends in the photos and videos you make. And if you want to write about them too, even better.

We'll post stuff on the blog as it gets sent in.


Show us your Newquay - Wednesday 17 November
We'll be meeting outside Burger King on Wednesday at 3.30pm for a walk around Newquay with our 'love hearts,' cameras and video camera, capturing different spots on film as we go.

If you're a budding director or photographer, this is your chance to get creative!


We can't wait to hear what you think about Newquay!

You've been framed by My a'th kar Newquay! Posted on Wednesday, 29 September 2010 | 1 comments

We were really excited to get our new 'you've been framed by My a'th kar Newquay' frames kindly made for us by RIO's XtraVerts (cheers guys!). The frames have been designed based on the Q/heart in our logo - and we think they look awesome!

We're soon going to be out and about on the streets of Newquay with our video camera finding out what people love about our town, and what could be changed to make it better.

Mural mania at Burger King! Posted on Wednesday, 22 September 2010 | 0 comments

We all got really excited today when we started painting our first mural down at Burger King. Mat has been working really hard getting the site ready and drawing out the design, and on Wednesday he let us loose on the wall!

Loads of people turned up to help out and we got a lot of attention from everyone passing by asking us what we were doing. It's awesome to see what we've been working on over the summer starting to come to life and that people are already sitting up and taking notice.

Big thanks to James and all the BK crew for giving us free drinks to keep us going while we were working - thanks guys! And thanks to everyone else who came down to help too. It's amazing how different the wall looks already.

We can't wait to get painting again next week! Come and join us if you can!

Burger King gets on board a whopper of a biteback campaign with My a'th kar Newquay Posted on Monday, 6 September 2010 | 0 comments

Photo: Dan Jones

We're really stoked that fast-food giant Burger King has got on board to help us transform Newquay. They're giving us a big cash boost and letting us use their wall to paint our first mural on.

We're so excited and we can't wait to get painting!!

We've been working really hard the past few weeks developing ideas and concepts for the murals. Each one's going to be different, but they'll all have a similar theme running through them, It's all about respect - getting people who visit to respect the place we live in, and the people who live here, and themselves. We also want to show people all the good things that Newquay has to offer.

Can you help us get started?
We're desparately looking for a small scaffolding tower to use when we start painting. If anyone's got one we could borrow, or knows someone who might give us a good rate, let us know! In return, we can give you a big shout out in our next press release, blog and Twitter.

If you can help, please email Fiona@excessenergycomms.com

Big thanks to Burger King!

Watch this space for more news on the first mural...

Your Newquay. Your Life. Your Voice. Posted on Friday, 13 August 2010 | 1 comments

Photo: HNT Photography

We want to change Newquay’s image nationally and get people to see that there’s way more to where we live than just stag and hen partying and boozing.

It’s time for this to stop. Right now. We’re taking a stand to let people know enough’s enough.
The more people we can get to join us, the sooner things are going to change.

But to do this, we need your help.

My a’th kar Newquay means ‘I love you, Newquay’ in Cornish.
We’re a group of young people who are trying to make things better.

We love living in Newquay, and we want to show people just how awesome life can be here. Part of it is about respect – we want people to respect our town, whether they live here all year around or are just visiting.

We’ve got an amazing professional artist on board, Matt McIvor, who’s helping us transform some of the ugly, derelict sites around the town. Excess Energy, a PR & communications company in Newquay, has got loads of experience working with young people and bags of enthusiasm is helping us run the media campaign. If you like doing media stuff, it’s a great chance to get some work experience on a real project and try something new.

What we’re looking for
We want to push My a’th kar Newquay to the max. We’re starting to get support in the local papers and with local businesses getting on board. But we want to do even more – we want to get people across the country to sit up and take notice of what we’re doing. And we want to persuade local businesses to step up and support the project, too.

We want:
Young people age 16-25 who want to have their say in what goes on in Newquay.
• Artists/creative types who want to get involved in the hands-on, messy stuff, turning very big ideas into reality on our streets
• Social media gurus to spread the word about the project online
• Budding PR people to write press releases, set up photoshoots, talk to journalists, make viral filmclips etc...

The artwork’s going to go up on high-profile sites all over Newquay and will get seen by thousands of people. You know all those boring, empty boards around sites where they’re building new developments? That’s what we’re going to transform.

Interested?
Get in touch with Fiona Egglestone on Fiona@excessenergycomms.com or call 01637 852130 to find out more.

We’re having an informal meeting for anyone who’s interested in getting involved on Wednesday 18th August, 4-6pm in Excess Energy’s office, 8 School Close, Newquay.

But don’t worry if you can’t make it – just get in touch. We’ll be setting up more meetings and workshops soon.

Photo: HNT Photography