Quests

QUESTS at the Washington Galleries Shopping Centre, April 2025 – November 2025
Galleries Washington, Washington, Tyne & Wear, NE38 7SD

The Quests project takes artists into four schools and an arts centre in the Washington area to work with children to conceptualise and create art for exhibition in the local shopping mall, creating an art trail through public space that reveals aspects of either a local legend, an historic figure or event or something about the town that the children choose to celebrate. An illustrated zine provides the context and a souvenir for the children and interested visitors.

| Public Art | Interactivity | School workshops | Meaningful Engagement | Murals and Digital Technology |

Schools:
(click on school for weblink)

Rickleton Primary | St. Roberts of Newminster Comphrensive School |
Harry Watts Academy (ASC), Harraton | Biddick Primary |

Workshops Artist’s:

Sites:

Potential Mural Sites for the Story Trail around the Galleries Shopping Centre:
We’ve allowed for a 29ft x 19ft square coverage, but the Mural(s) can be separated to other sites.

Potential Ideas for the Story Trail.

1. Creating the Story Trail:

Thematic Connection: Since you’re working with folklore, myths, and personal stories, you can have each school create content based on a different theme or myth, but interlink them through a common element—maybe a shared mythical figure, place, or object that appears in each school’s contribution.
Clue Format: The vinyl images can be spread throughout the mall in a way that each set of images represents a part of a larger narrative. For example, the first set could introduce characters or a conflict; the second could hint at a solution, and so on. They could be subtle clues, like hidden symbols, lines of poetry, or small objects related to the folklore (a small key, a mysterious symbol, etc.).
Directional Flow: Have the images arranged in a specific flow. People can follow the trail like a scavenger hunt, with signs directing them to the next clue or stage of the story.

2. Uniting the Four Schools:

Collaborative Storytelling: Each school could contribute to a part of the myth or legend. For example, one school creates the origin story, another the conflict, a third the hero’s journey or resolution, and the fourth could provide an unexpected twist or moral lesson.
Cultural Exchange: Encourage the students to find common threads between the folklore they’re studying. If each school is exploring different cultures or regions, they could weave a global or universal theme together, emphasizing how myths and stories transcend borders.
Character Crossovers: Introduce recurring characters or motifs across all four schools’ contributions. Maybe each school works on a different incarnation of a mythical figure (like different aspects of a god, spirit, or hero), or each group focuses on a different perspective of the same event in a mythological history.

3. Collecting Clues:

Unlocking the Story: The final payoff could be the completion of the story—once people collect all the clues, they unlock the full narrative. The end could be a visual reveal that ties all the stories together. For example, a large mural or floor installation that combines elements from each school’s story to complete the legend.
Interactive Element: Once the story is complete, the visitors could get a chance to interact with the final piece (maybe using QR codes or augmented reality to reveal hidden details or animations related to the myth).
Community Impact: The final payoff could also include a community event where the artists and students reflect on their work and share the journey of creating the folklore. Maybe the last clue leads to an exhibition or a gathering where the story is brought to life with a performance or presentation.