The role of public art – Esther Johnson’s Ships in the Sky project

Four years ago when BHS went into administration and the Hull store – one of the largest in the chain – closed its doors for the last time, Esther Johnson knew she had to act quickly. Esther, artist, filmmaker and professor of film and media arts at Sheffield Hallam University has been speaking to the Yorkshire Post about her Ships in the Sky project. Hull-born Johnson had long been an admirer of the Alan Boyson Three Ships mural which adorned the front of the building and she feared that it would soon come under threat. So she set up Ships in the Sky, an arts and social history project looking at the important role public art plays in forging a local identity.

For more about the project visit the Ships in the Sky website, here.