Manchester messages of hope spread love around the city

During the depths of the national lockdown, Manchester’s Great Northern Warehouse commissioned local illustrator MOZE (Becki Miller) to create an uplifting and undeniably Northern mural to keep Manchester’s spirits up.

The simple message, ‘THIS TOO SHALL PASS’ wrapped around the colourful letters L-O-V-E reminded Mancunians to ‘stay safe our kid’.

The positive response to the artwork then kickstarted the Great Northern’s Message of Hope campaign, which invited people across Greater Manchester to get creative and spread their own gratitude and love during the COVID-19 crisis.

Mancunians of all ages and abilities were asked to send in images of their own inspirational artworks to be displayed at the Great Northern once it was safe for doors to reopen.

Over the past five months, the artwork has been available to view via an online gallery.

But now, as Greater Manchester and the rest of the UK are adapting to the new normal, the Great Northern has combined almost 50 Messages of Hope to create a beautiful window gallery of inspirational pieces of art.

The artists, Mancunians, are from all walks of life, from school kids to some of Manchester’s best loved professional artists.

Featuring NHS rainbows and Manchester worker bees galore, the new mural truly shows how loving and resilient Manchester is as a city, whilst reminding locals to be grateful, yet remain vigilant in the fight against COVID-19. 

“After the incredible response to our ‘THIS TOO SHALL PASS’ mural we wanted to give Mancunians a voice to share positivity during what was a really tough time,” says centre director Mark Schofield.

“The submissions we received were amazing and very powerful, so we thought it would only be right to put these on display at the Great Northern.

“We hope the public enjoy looking at these as much as we have!”

The new mural has been unveiled this month and is on display on Deansgate.