Southsea Castle community art exhibition celebrates the people who make Portsmouth great

The ‘We Are Portsmouth’ show was opened by the Lord Mayor at Southsea Castle on a sunny Saturday earlier this month.

Created by The Grateful Hearts Club and The Literacy Hubs, two Portsmouth-based groups working in partnership, the exhibition showcased 20 inspiring people from across the city who contribute to making it great.

To help with their literacy skills, the Portsea Sailors - The Literacy Hubs’ new group for youngsters - interviewed these 20 individuals and turned their interviews into art.

The interviewees included Natty and Sam from Natty's Jerk, Fark, Josh is Fab, Molly and Nathan from Unmade Radio, LuLu Whitmore from Love Southsea, Alex Ruddock, the co-founder of Portsmouth BLM, artist Samo, Jake and Jenna from Undercover Skatepark Project, and Roni Edwards of Pamodzi Creatives, who also runs the Inspirational Women of Portsmouth awards.

More than 600 people came to the Southsea Castle show.

Charla Grant, founder of The Grateful Hearts Club, said: ‘It was such a wonderful moment, we even rolled out the red carpet so they could feel like celebrities for the day.

‘This “We Are Portsmouth” exhibition was about engaging the sailors in a project that helped improve their literacy skills and there was such a sense of pride and confidence when they saw their work displayed.

‘We also wanted to share more about the 20 interviewees - people all doing great work in our city like our CEO and founder [of The Literacy Hubs] Becca Dean who works tirelessly to make projects like this happen.

‘All interviews were turned into art - both audio and visual and visitor’s loved hearing the interviews and what the sailors asked.’

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The raffle raised more than £500, with prizes donated by interviewees and a ‘Design Our Own Bird’ competition in honour of artist Fark, who will turn one of the designs into a piece of art for the winner.

Charla added: ‘There is so much to celebrate in our city and it was amazing to see our community come together in such a way to show their support for The Literacy Hubs and The Grateful Arts Club.

‘The exhibition was all about community, connection and creativity and people really came away feeling that. Hopefully it is the first of many.’