The swan and only: Sincil Bank Art Project’s newest creation

A huge swan mural is taking shape in Lincoln — the latest creation in the Sincil Bank Art Project, and The Lincolnite went to check it out.

The community art project aims to improve the aesthetic appeal of Sincil Bank and was the idea of Harry Conti, one of The Lincolnite’s 30 Under 30 stars in 2019, and Adrian Bishop who together founded local firm Student Housing.

French artist Zabou who is the creative art director of the whole project produced a mural on Kirkby Street in April last year, which depicts Sir Isaac Newton looking through a prism and seeing the visible colours of the spectrum.

Curtis working on the swan mural. | Photo: Joseph Verney for The Lincolnite

Sophie Mess created the project’s second mural on Trollope Street to showcase the famous Lincoln Star Clematis from the 1950s.

Curtis Hylton, a 30-year-old street artist from Reading, started work on the latest mural of a swan at the weekend and hopes to complete his work of art over the next 24 hours.

Street artist Curtis Hylton created the large-scale swan mural in Lincoln as part of the Sincil Bank Art Project. | Photo: Joseph Verney for The Lincolnite

The mural is nearly finished. | Photo: Joseph Verney for The Lincolnite

The swan mural is located on Portland Street in the car park of Webbs Motorcycles and artist Curtis told The Lincolnite: “I am used to spraying murals of birds and flowers and a swan felt fitting for Lincoln.”

The brains behind the project Harry Conti said: “It’s been great and we’ve had thousands of positive comments from local residents in Lincoln and people stopping to take photos.

“The projet has exceeded our expectations and the art speaks for itself. It’s had a really positive impact on local people.

“The previous two murals now have QR codes which show over 120,000 visits from 37 countries.

He added that he wanted to thank Steve Kemp, the chairman of the Sincil Community Land Trust, who has been really supportive of the project and gathered the thoughts of local people.”

Street artist Curtis Hylton (right) stood proudly with his swan mural creation, alongside the Sincil Bank Art Project co-founder Harry Conti (left). | Photo: Joseph Verney for The Lincolnite

The murals will stay in place for up to 10 years and Harry said he aims to have another 27 creations in the Sincil Bank area over the next three years to make a total of 30.

Harry added: “I lived in the Sincil Bank area as a student. Now we have Student Housing we wanted to give something back and show a bit of love, and inject some colour, into Sincil Bank.”

The art project hopes to have a further two large-scale murals in 2023 and is looking for any wall owners and local artists to work with in the future.

The Sincil Bank Art Project co-creator Harry Conti (left) with street artist Curtis Hylton (right). | Photo: Joseph Verney for The Lincolnite

By the end of the year, Harry also hopes to launch an art trail which will include all the completed murals so far and will continually be added to. Each mural with have a QR code giving people access to more information, and videos about the work and each artist.

Anyone interested in supporting the project is urged to contact Harry on Instagram @SincilBankArtProject or online here.