Make Your Mark: Stranraer Academy’s Community Mural Shines at Oyster Festival

Over Oyster Festival Weekend, 13th-15th September 2024, a group of Creative Ambassadors from Stranraer Academy set out to create a community mural representing the inclusion and diversity the Stranraer Oyster Festival brings to the town. The artwork, titled ‘Make Your Mark,’ featured over 100 hand-drawn oysters as part of a large mural. The intention behind the design was to encourage members of the community to pick up a paintbrush and quite literally make their mark on the artwork.

Beginning on Friday evening, volunteers ranging from S2 to S5 worked collaboratively with community members at the festival to complete the piece, including artists as young as two years old! After the opening procession, students braved the festival in the rain to complete over half of the mural on the first evening of the event.

On a much wetter and windier Saturday, students volunteered their entire afternoon to completing the mural—taking the oysters hand-painted by the community and adding visual elements such as lines and patterns to enhance its visual impact. The mural was then placed in the marquee for the remainder of the festival, serving as a backdrop for photographs and selfies.

The final community mural, Make Your Mark, has been presented to the organisers of the Stranraer Oyster Festival and will be remembered as the first live community piece created by the Stranraer Academy Creative Arts Ambassadors. All young people involved in the development of Make Your Mark will receive a Saltire Scotland volunteering certificate in recognition of their efforts in supporting community values.