Gillo-crusta Artcycling Sculpture

“Gillo-crusta” connects high-end historic with everyday utilitarian in a public hybrid furniture up-cycling project. It offers an opportunity for people to connect upcycling their furniture with the principles of the Gillow and Lincrusta design. It created innovative artwork with community groups looking at the Lancaster’s history of Lincrusta wallcoverings and Gillow furniture in a furniture upcycling project and in buildings and homes. The work here on Saatchi was a prototype "artcycling" work that was exhibited at Birley Contemporary Art Studios, Preston, Lancashire in November 2023. Furniture Up-cycling in the Mill Race was an outside event held behind the Gillow building in Lancaster that invites the public to bring their furniture and use moulds to transform them into ”Gillo-crusta” sculptures. The targeted groups for this event will be the upcycling and craft communities in the Lancaster District. ‘Mill Race: Flow of Change’ was a three-year programme to deliver a wide range of place-based cultural opportunities to help reveal and experience the area’s unique histories and distinctiveness. It will celebrate the Mill Race area as a core and dynamic part of Lancaster that is directly informed by its heritage but also shape its emerging, contemporary character. It will foster an environment for co-production, forging new relationships that strengthen the local cultural ecology and extend and broaden the current cultural offer. The programme is funded by Historic England, Lancaster City Council and Lancaster University and managed by Lancaster Arts. A Cultural Consortium of local residents selects and oversees the commissions.