FACES OF THE CITY LIGHT UP CASTLE
SPECTACULAR PROJECTION TO HERALD BIG REOPENING
ONE hundred city residents are lighting up Nottingham Castle.
The spectacular light show is part of the build-up to the castle’s reopening this spring after a £30m redevelopment.
Faces projected on to the castle include
NHS employees, teachers, charity workers, community leaders, poets, artists and campaigners.
Due to the lockdown, the Nottingham’s In
Your Face project is only available to view on the castle’s website and social media channels.
But Nottingham Castle Trust plans to stage it in full later this year – providing Covid-19 restrictions allow.
The project was commissioned by the trust and Nottingham Business Improvement District (BID).
Created by
Vent Media, it shows vast portraits cast on to the castle’s Gatehouse.
They appear alongside historical figures including Robin Hood and quotes from Nottingham poets, rappers and writers.
The portraits were taken by photographer Tracey Whitefoot alongside work by young photographers Alina Moldovean, Sarah Mensah and Rohan Patel.
Faces include nurse Juliet Wright, NTU student Suleman Salim, paramedic Rosea Poynter, Poet, archivist and PHD researcher Panya Banjoko, founder of Switch Up and Nottingham Boxing School Marcellus Baz, and retired nurse, midwife and Britain’s first black health visitor Tryphena Anderson.
Josh Osoro Pickering, Nottingham Castle Trust’s engagement and participation officer, said: “It was hugely important to us that we launch the lead-up to Nottingham Castle’s reopening by putting the people of our city on to our Castle walls.
“This striking artwork is a celebration of our diverse local communities – our essential workers, campaigners and creative talents – but the main intention of the Nottingham’s In Your Face project is to make a bold statement.
“Historically Nottingham Castle’s walls were built to keep people out and we wanted to repurpose them.
“By seeing a wide representation of local people projected on to this historical site, we want everyone to know that Nottingham Castle is their space; a welcoming, vibrant, creative world-class place that belongs to them.”
Lucy Stanford, manager BID, said: “This is such an exciting time for the city and we are therefore delighted to be supporting Nottingham Castle with the Nottingham’s In Your Face project. We can’t wait to see the installation and very much look forward to celebrating Nottingham’s local heroes, past and present.” Councillor Dave Trimble, Nottingham City Council portfolio holder for culture, said: “It’s really important to connect local people with their transformed castle and this bold and creative initiative is one great way of achieving that. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what promises to be a really spectacular event.”
The historical landmark has undergone an extensive programme of conservation, renovation and redevelopment which includes the creation of new art galleries housing permanent collections of fine art and touring exhibitions, new mixed reality galleries exploring the 1,000-year-old castle’s rebellious past and the story of Robin Hood, a new visitor centre, a cafe, a restaurant and outdoor family play area.
We want everyone to know that Nottingham Castle is their space
Josh Osoro Pickering
IT has taken three long and painful years for Janet Scott’s family to finally hear their own convictions over her death officially confirmed.
And that was that the much-loved mum, sister, grandma, auntie and wife was let down by the authorities designated to protect her.
Her sister, Susan Thomson, 61, of Carlton, speaks to a picture of her sister each day and always blows her a kiss in the morning.
But these rituals, she knows, will never bring her back as she is constantly reminded that the man who killed her could have been stopped.
At Nottingham Council House yesterday, coroner Jonathan Straw said “missed opportunities” by a probation officer had “significantly contributed to her death”.
Mrs Thomson had been with her 51-year-old sister on the night that convicted killer Simon Mellors waltzed into their life in April 2017 at the Coach and Horses pub.
After a number of failed Internet dates, Mellors approached the two women at the bar and had taken a shine to Janet.
Mellors had bragged about having two villas in Spain and his own business – but the reality was that he was a convicted murderer released from prison for battering his previous partner, Pearl Black, to death in their Bramcote home in 1999 while her two children slept next door.
This was a confession which Mrs Scott struggled and wrestled with as their relationship progressed. But after Christmas 2018, nine months in, she decided enough was enough, leading to the chain of events that ended in her violent death at the hands of Mellors.
Speaking outside the court, after hearing the coroner highlight a series of failings by the probation officer assigned to Mellors, Mrs Thomson told the Post: “I feel very emotional but I am so glad he has been found responsible for failing my sister.
“If he had done his job properly then my sister would be here. I know he did not kill her but he did not help her and that is what they are there for – to protect the public.
“I don’t think it is closure. Everything goes on as normal for the probation service but it will never be normal for us. I give her picture a kiss every day and I talk to her.
“She will never be gone because she lives in me. But it has been a life sentence and it will always be that way.”
Other family members also paid tribute to Mrs Scott during the final day of the inquest – and expressed how their lives had been shattered by the murder.
Her estranged husband Chris Scott said: “Janet was not only my wife but she was my best friend, my true love. The void she left in my life is massive.
“This has totally wrecked my life mentally and physically. I have lost everything. I can only hope now that my wife did not die in vain.
“And that lessons can be learned to prevent such atrocities from repeating.”
Her son Jonathan Winfield said: “No words can really express the frustration and anger I feel towards the authorities charged with the protection of innocent, lawabiding citizens from those that will do them harm.
“My mum was a sacrificial lamb to appeal to the ideal that everyone deserves a second chance and I don’t know if that is a noble ideal or not but I do know my mum’s right for a safe and free life was taken from her.
“It has forever changed the course of our lives and the devastating reality that this could have been avoided if the procedures put into place were strictly adhered to.
“I am constantly haunted by what my mum had to go through in those final hours. I am of the opinion that
Janet Scott’s sister Sue Thomson and estranged husband Chris Scott say she was failed by those designated to protect her
the probation service are responsible for what happened to my mother.”
Her other son, Joshua Gray, added: “Not only on that day did my mother lose her life in unimaginable circumstances but ones that could have been prevented.
“Six children lost a mother, six children lost a connection to each other, six children stand three years later crying out their mother’s name.
“If it was not for our mum being the strong, outgoing and courageous woman that she was through our childhoods I don’t know how many of her children would be standing here today.
“She was not just a lady with a big heart, she was my superhero and light at the end of the tunnel. She was my everything.”
Her daughter Hannah Pinder said she was 36 weeks pregnant with her second child when she heard the news of her mum’s death.
She said she tried to ring and send her mum messages after police broke the news to her as she could not believe she was gone.
She said: “Instead of mum coming to see me at hospital with congratulations, balloons and flowers, I was picking out her casket and her funeral flowers.
“She was so pleased to become a grandmother – she was over the moon. Even now I look at my two children and feel sad I have been robbed of her love and affection.
“You only get one mother in life and the bond she shares is unmatched. She was a mum first and was proud of all six of us and always will be.”