A-Level students’ street art removed after complaints

A-Level students in Bury St Edmunds have had their street art removed after less than a week due to complaints.

The art students from Abbeygate Sixth Form College installed two mural banners at the arc shopping centre in the Suffolk town as part of a wider arts and education project on crime and punishment.

However, after complaints from visitors and residents, arc centre manager Allan Hassell, who apologised to the students for any upset, decided to take the banners down.

Artist Louise Gridley, who worked on the project, said she was “deeply disappointed” the murals had been removed.

Describing the banners, she added: “It’s about social justice. It’s about students learning about what happened in the past, people who lived here, and then making judgements about it.

“For example, on one of the murals there’s a picture of a wolf and the wolf was there to represent authority and the fact it was overbearing and the punishments were too harsh.

“None of the students were glamorising what had happened, but telling the stories that happened to real people.”