Last month, along with our friends at Chilypep, we unveiled a bold new public artwork called Talking Tarn, which adorns the walls of the bridge that connects Barnsley Interchange to Barnsley Train Station.
Talking Tarn is designed by artist Robyn Makings in collaboration with two groups on young people at Chilypep; the BRV (Belonging, Resilience, and Vocabulary) group and the Young Commissioners project. The artwork aims to encourage conversations and guide young people in Barnsley and South Yorkshire toward essential support services, while celebrating young people and their authentic voices. But how did the project comes about?
To explain all, we need to travel back to 18 months ago when the Penistone Line Partnership approached Chilypep to see if they wanted to see if they wanted to be part of the Northern Station Adopters program, which includes everything from gardening and landscaping, to litter picking and art projects at a chosen station along the Penistone Line. Chilypep immediately consulted with their young people and decided that they would like to create an artwork that would platform young people’s voices and that they would like to partner with Barnsley Civic to realise the project, following successful artistic collaborations in previous years.
By the autumn it was decided that the artwork produced would not only depict young people, but would also highlight the important and vital mental health services available to young people in Barnsley. For this project, we knew instantly which artist we wanted to work with; a Barnsley based book designer and illustrator Robyn Makings, whose images of young people are imbedded with the right amount of charm, character and authenticity that we thought would appeal to the young people we were to work with. As always with projects like this, is would be the young people that would sign off that idea, and fortunately as soon as they saw some of Robyn’s artwork, they unanimously approved. The Penistone Line team were able to advice us on funding options and Barnsley Civic drew up a budget based on other similar artist-led public projects.
Another thing we felt that was important to get right, was to find the perfect location; one that was visible to as many young people as possible. Maybe we had ideas above out station (see was we did there?) when we suggested to the Northern Station Adoption team that we cover the two longest walls in the station – the two 12m long curved walls on either side of the bridge. Once we had that idea, we were steadfast in making that happen.
Once Robyn and our two groups of young people from Chilypep were on board; the BRV group and the Young Commissioners project, the planning started. The project would see five phases.
Phase 1 – In November 2024, each group took part in a workshop with artist Robyn, Participation Programme Manager at Chilypep, Chantelle and Community Engagement Manager at Barnsley Civic, Jason. There the young people talked about how they wanted the young people to look, including their hairstyles, their clothes and accessories, and acted out scenarios in which young people shared information with each other, such as handing a flyer to another young person. The roll-played scenarios were captured in reference photos for Robyn’s drawings. Behind the scenes, Chilypep did additional work with the young people to identify the services that would be sign-posted to in the mural.
Phase 2 – Over December and January, Robyn took to her digital drawing boards to produce draft of two murals, which unbelievably, weren’t too far away from what is now on the walls.
Phase 3 – In February 2025, each group had a second workshop with Robyn, in which they scrutinised her draft drawings and suggested changes and ways in which they thought they could be improved upon, including finer details in the depictions of the young people and the suggestions of famous Barnsley architecture watermarked behind the captions ‘How’s That Been?’.
Phase 4 – Following the second round of workshops, Robyn finalised the artworks and produced additional portrait poster ‘explainers’, which could be used elsewhere in the station, if the opportunity arose. It was decided that the final artwork would be produced on hi-tack vinyl and Barnsley Civic sourced the printer – CV Graphics in Fenay Bridge, Huddersfield, who fit our available budget.
Phase 5 – The original plan was to install in April 2025, and then September 2025, but roof leak scuppering our plans. The two murals were eventually installed in January 2026, much to the delight of the young people and Robyn, who finally got to see their artwork brought to life.
Launch Day – On Thursday 15th January, young people from Chilypep officially unveiled the public artwork by dressing as pigeons (a symbol of the working-class outsider), dancing to music and handing out information and flyers to passer-by. We were joined by Best of Barnsley who filmed the event (film coming soon!).
Talking Tarn can be seen 7 days a week at Barnsley Interchange.
Talking Town is a project by Chilypep, Barnsley Civic and Robyn Makings, supported by Northern, Penistone Line Partnership, Community Rail Network, South Yorkshire Children & Young People’s Alliance, SYMCA, NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Barnsley Council’s Great Childhood’s Ambition Fund.
