A giant neon sign declaring ‘All You Need Is Love’, custom-made community lanterns to brighten people’s day, alternative neon road signs encouraging hope and positivity, and illustrated portraits of local community heroes all make up a special takeover of the Four Seasons Shopping Centre in Mansfield by arts charity First Art.

The temporary exhibition runs to 5th August and features works that have come about from First Art’s Go the Distance Festival, a year-long festival in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, together with other projects from the last year. The final chapter of Go the Distance is made up of Shine A Light, Light Up and Lights Out.

Visitors to Four Seasons can step into a pop-up gallery in the former Ernest Jones jewellery shop and see works developed over the past six months and inspired by local communities that make up Shine A Light and Light Up.

Also in the centre, outside what was Topshop, is a seven-metre-long neon sign with the words ‘All You Need Is Love’ inspired by the famous Beatles’ song. In the windows of the main pop-up gallery are ‘Signs of Hope’ commissioned by First Art and created by Raphael Daden, a series of neon lights in the shape of road signs offering words of encouragement through difficult times, such as ‘Dig Deep’ and ‘Keep Going’.  These form part of Lights Out, a series of light and digital artworks and installations designed to surprise and delight and, ultimately, bring a smile across communities in Ashfield, Bolsover, Mansfield and North East Derbyshire.

Light Up was created to bring communities together in the best way possible during the pandemic. This involved working with Dizzy Ink and Grace Barnes to create a special place-based lantern to go out across communities in Bellamy Road in Mansfield, Leamington in Ashfield, South Normanton in Bolsover, and Clay Cross in North East Derbyshire to bring a little extra light at a difficult time. The original plans had to change due to the pandemic but instead First Art teamed up with schools, care homes and residents to send out lanterns accompanied with messages of hope to help brighten people’s day. The exhibition features some of the lanterns, messages and a film celebrating the project.

Shine a Light was a campaign launched by First Art last November across Leamington in Ashfield, Bellamy Road in Mansfield, South Normanton in Bolsover, and Clay Cross in North East Derbyshire to find community members who had gone above and beyond to help during the pandemic. The 11 crowned heroes are the subject of a series of portraits and film to honour them and recognise their efforts, which are on show in the main gallery.

Also exhibiting in the windows at Four Seasons is Back to Normal, a campaign in partnership with OneConversation and funded by Without Walls, that questions what the ‘new normal’ looks like for the learning disabled and autistic community. The project sets out to challenge accepted norms and enable conversations to facilitate change. The exhibition features a series of short animated films created by Mike Choo and directed by artist Daryl Beeton, which resulted from consultations with local disabled people. The campaign tackles key issues disabled people felt particularly dissatisfied with as being accepted norms.

First Art director, Karl Greenwood, said: “This exhibition is a great opportunity for us to finally share the work we’ve been doing in response to Covid-19 over the last year and beyond. We set out to create a festival that went the distance in response to the ever-changing Covid situation and make work that celebrated community togetherness and connected people. It’s fair to say it’s gone on longer than expected. We hope it lightens people’s spirits and encourages more people into the town centre.

“Culture has a huge role to play in reinventing and reviving town centres in the future so this is a great platform for us. We’re extremely grateful to Four Seasons Shopping Centre for making this possible and for all their help. We’d like to say a huge thank you to all our partners, community members and artists who have been part of the projects we’ve undertaken.”

Rebekah O’Neill, manager of Four Seasons Shopping Centre, added: “As we edge closer to returning to normality it is great to have these lovely positive and bright installations in the centre to uplift our customers. Four Seasons is proud to be a hub for our local community and are so excited about being able to work with First Art to deliver these exhibitions and activities in the centre, which we hope will be the first of many as restrictions ease. We are particularly delighted to help celebrate those local heroes who have worked so hard during the pandemic.”

The main gallery space will also host free creative taster sessions on 17th and 24th July. Details including booking will be available at www.firstart.org.uk/fourseasons.

The main gallery will be open 10am–4pm, Thursdays and Fridays, 9.30am–4pm Saturdays. The All You Need Is Love, Signs of Hope and Back to Normal installations are all able to be viewed outside of these times during normal opening times for the centre.

More information about the exhibition and the Go the Distance Festival can be found at www.firstart.org.uk/fourseasons

PHOTOS: Lamar Francois