Education meets art at mural launch

A mural spanning 82 metres, connecting the worlds of education, the environment and art, has been completed on the façade of the Department of Education on Queensway.
Geraldine Martinez has spent months working on the piece that was, at one point, shelved due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
Now, more than a year after when she began, the project themed on the environment and stretched across the walls of Gibraltar’s educational hub is ready for viewing.
The Minister for the Environment, Culture and Education Dr John Cortes and Gibraltar Cultural Services CEO, Seamus Byrne, visited the mural to mark its completion.
The mural titled ‘Touch the earth gently for all is connected’, signifying a moment of rebirth, has aptly been completed in the middle of spring.
Ms Martinez submitted the application and artwork to GCS over a year ago; now, with Covid, this moment of rebirth strikes a chord.

“This was not something that was done intentionally, as there was no Covid at the time, but really it’s a bit of a renaissance as well,” she said.
“We’re starting again as a community.”
Ms Martinez was meant to start work on the mural in March 2020, just as the pandemic struck.
After a few months’ break, she was able to begin work in September and even close part of Queensway so she could trace her design on the walls.
Once the tracing was done, Gibraltar was back in lockdown during the winter months.
Ms Martinez did the project, for the most part by herself, but needed to take breaks as painting on a large scale can be tough physically.
“It was really straining on my body, it’s very labour intensive,” she said.
Overall, Ms Martinez has worked out she would’ve spent the equivalent of one full month working away on the project.
But, despite the challenges, she looks forward to designing and painting more murals.
Her other mural can be seen within the tunnel off Irish Town towards Chatham Counterguard and is called ‘Make A Wish’.