A community takeover street party celebrating local people, culture, and heritage at Westgate Street, Gloucester.
Community members were invited to our street party where we unveiled a large textile artwork with hundreds of stars designed by local people. This was a free, open street party style event for anyone and everyone to join.
Throughout the street party, there was a variety of entertainment, all from Gloucester, such as an open mic, live music, spoken word, history talks, exhibitions, reminiscing, and more.
Take a look at our Stars of Westgate Street Flier.
Our program and map:
What have we made?
A textile artwork made up of hundreds of stars paying homage to the area’s rich history of tailoring and millinery, making an impressive colourful splash on the high street.
We have been running workshops all around Gloucester and with local partners inviting participants to design a star that represents them.
Meet our fabricator!
Patrick Furness & Eddie Parker
Patrick proposed the Audio/Video installation taking the community’s ‘stars’ and projecting/mapping them inside the Cathedral. This created a collaborative star map inside a place intended for contemplation, and temporarily filled a historic community building with contemporary people’s thoughts and ideas. This projection system allowed people to be able to see their stars in real-time projected in the cathedral.
Submissions open for Westgate Stories!
Over the last six months, Westgate Stories has been collecting and recording people’s memories of living and working on Westgate Street, within living memory. Thus far, it has uncovered a host of remarkable and precious memories, through formal and informal reminiscence sessions.
Some of the stories and more information can be found here.
Contact Marsha on: 07989 733870 or [email protected]
Pride
Pride in Gloucestershire will be returning to Gloucester Park on Saturday 10th September 2022.
With the Main Stage and Cabaret Stages leading the line up in terms of performance and the Speakers Corner returning with a full programme of insightful talks, discussions and debates – it really is shaping up to be our biggest and best Pride celebration yet!
Gloucester Park will be open from 11:30am – 8:00pm.
More information here.
Historic Buildings & Traditional Skills Fair
10am-4pm Saturday 10 September 2022
The Folk of Gloucester 99-103 Westgate Street Gloucester GL1 2PG
LIVE demonstrations of traditional building skills and crafts including stonemasonry, sign writing, limework, dendrochronology and more! Learn how to find the age of your house and how to care for historic properties. Discover Gloucester’s local list and speak to conservation professionals about their work.
Free event. No booking required. Contact [email protected] for more information.
Threads
A language beyond words – Stitching and stories
With Voices Gloucester
Celebrating collaborative stitching projects across the country, and the proud history of textile in Westgate Street, Threads looks to celebrate the past and look to the future in this dynamic program of exhibitions and events.
More information here.
Download our accessibility map to show where there are drop kerbs, paved areas, obstacles and accessible toilets.
Reflective Space:
Due to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, we held a reflective community space at St Nicholas Church, Westgate Street. There was the opportunity to gently make stars while sharing thoughts or just sit in the company of others, spending creative time together to understand this moment in our shared history.
Spirit of Westgate:
We returned to Gloucester in 2023, to install our textile artwork for the city’s Hi! Street Fest. It set the stage for a range of events, including artists Imogen Harvey-Lewis and Jon Seagrave’s performative celebration – the Spirit of Westgate.
Working with Strike A Light, Gloucester City Council, Historic England, Gloucester Culture Trust, Gloucester City Homes, and Applied Live Art Studios.
For more information about Stars of Westgate click here.
If you have any questions, contact Katrina McGonagle or R.M. Sánchez-Camus.
Part of the High Street Heritage Action Zone
