£1,500 raised to help repaint mural
MORE than £1,500 has been raised within days to repaint a landmark Cardiff mural that was defaced in an apparent hate crime.
The stunning ‘My City My Shirt’ mural, designed to celebrate the diversity of the city, has been defaced with white paint seemingly thrown deliberately across it.
A GoFundMe page was set up with a goal to raise £750 to cover the cost of repainting the mural. But the page has already raised more than £1,565 at the time of writing.
“The mural was created to celebrate the diverse communities that make Cardiff one of the oldest, multicultural city’s in the UK and promote positive conversation around racism in football,” the fundraising page reads.
“It is hoped that we can collectively show, hatred has no place in our city and racism has no place in sport, by working together to raise funds and restore the art work for all to enjoy.”
As first reported in yesterday’s Echo, South Wales Police are now investigating the incident and it is being treated as a hate crime. The incident was reported on Monday and is believed to have happened sometime overnight.
The mural on James Street is part of the My City My Shirt campaign, a project created by Yusuf Ismail, pictured, and Shawqi Hasson that aims to encourage more people of colour to connect with their city and football club.
Together, they have created 23 portraits of people from around Cardiff wearing the Bluebirds shirt as part of the project.
It depicts mother-oftwo Maimuna Indaji wearing a Cardiff City shirt and is intended to celebrate diversity in the city. The mural has been dubbed “Butetown’s Mona Lisa.”
Yusuf added that the timing of the incident was particularly upsetting with October marking Black History Month, while a statue of Wales’ first black headteacher Betty Campbell was unveiled in Cardiff last week.
“There’s been a lot of black and brown expression recently,” he said. “That’s obviously very positive for us, as it’s really showcased these different communities and ethnicities in the best light.
“But this mural was created back in April - so for somebody to take the time with the intention of doing it during Black History Month and so close to the unveiling of the statue too, it’s really distressing.”
Cardiff Council leader Huw Thomas described the incident as “awful”. He tweeted: “Yet again, another symbol of everything that’s wonderful about Cardiff is vandalised by a tiny, tiny few.
“I hope they are swiftly caught, and taught the error of their ways.”