Oswestry cafe uses art to attract more visitors

The Baby Bird Cafe and Designs in Mind, Cross Street, Oswestry, won funding for an on the high street project. The result, a colourful mosaic at the entrance to the child-friendly cafe and birds in flight above the cafe, was officially unveiled this week.

Designs in Mind, a creative studio of artists and people whose members are adults in touch with mental health services, put on a series of creative workshops for cafe customers and for pupils at the Meadows Primary School.

Volunteer Jenny Gilford said the birds on the branches of a tree and the mosaic was then planned out in individual tiles.

Kevin Gibson, who has been involved with Designs in Mind for several years, said the mosaic team could only check if the different tiles matched up when the entrance floor was laid.

"We all breathed a sigh of relief when they did," he said.

Money for the artwork came from the Big Lottery Fund – Awards for All, the locally-based Priscilla Hilton-Jones Trust and the Treble Niners grant fund from the proceeds of the Oswestry bonfire and fireworks display. Designs in Mind has also just finished an ornately carved bench, which is a private commission.

Oswestry mayor, Councillor Paul Milner, said it was wonderful to see the latest creations unveiled.

"This commission is vibrant, bright and bold – like the Baby Bird Cafe itself," said the mayor. "Exciting and colourful, it promotes Cross Street as somewhere people want to go rather than the negative side of the street such as the empty buildings we have experienced."