17-23rd May 2021

The Unity Art Project was set up by artist and teacher, Lucy Chapman. She was inspired to set up the project in support of Trussell Trust Food Banks after seeing the level of financial crisis and need amongst young people in the colleges she works at dramatically increase as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The starting point for the project is a limited-edition screen print of a lyric from the song Unity by James Brown and Afrikaa Bambaataa. Lucy created the print in 2016 in response to the political polarisation following the Brexit vote in the UK and the election of Trump in the USA. After finding the print again during the first lockdown in 2020, she thought it would be fun to ask other artists to respond to it: 

“How does this sentiment resonate now in light of the pandemic? Is it more essential than ever, or idealistic nonsense? Will artists work with the sentiment or work against it – keep the meaning, or change it?”

The brief for the project was totally open – artists were invited to respond in any way they liked.

Happy DNA Day