Situated on the side of The Volunteers Arms in Seaham, Co. Durham, is this impactful mural as part of a collaborative project by Jamie Holman.

The large-scale mural covering the whole gable-end of the Volunteers Arms is part of of the Above Below Beyond collaborative work from artist Jamie Holman, young people across East Durham and local community organisations, exploring heritage and hope for the future of shared spaces.

"How do young people in East Durham want to be remembered?"

Initially evolving as workshops and research, Jamie Holman, working in partnership with creative producer and curator Alex Zawadzki devised a series of creative workshops across the area, including digital music making, particularly focussing on the Roland 808 and 303 synth and sequencer machines synonymous with Acid House as well as traditional 'band' recording, song writing, poetry, performance, DJ'ing, collage and banner-making. The research conducted by Jamie Holman into mining heritage and cultures, combined with the input from the project’s youth panel formed the proposition for 'Above, Below, Beyond.’ 

Above represents the current landscape, geography and communities and cultures that currently exist post mining.

Below representing the heritage and traditions that manifested as a consequence of mining and its associated industries.

Beyond as the articulation for the youth panels desires for their future. 

The artists had originally planned to deliver a large scale public event that would have included a banner parade with new banner works from Jamie Holman created by Durham Banner Makers, choreographed physical theatre developed in collaboration with the Lubetkin Youth Theatre, food for audiences that referenced 'snaps' - the food taken down the mines and a musical performance that referenced street parties, block parties and the Rave phenomena of the late 1980's (with visual links between the headlamps of local miners and DJ/Producers of rave and Acid House.

See the full the full project page here > https://nomorenowt.org/big-projects/above-below-beyond