A new public art trail featuring 100 decorated pigeons has taken roost in Bedford, celebrating the town’s stories of migration and settlement.
Hometown Birds launched on Saturday (19 April). It was created by Permission2, run by artists Anne Marie Abbate and Sara Turner and the artists hope that residents and visitors will flock to the bus station, Church Arcade, and Pigeon Square/Church Square to spot as many of the 100 unique birds as they can.
“When people arrive in Bedford Bus Station, one of the first areas they see is Church Square,fondly known as Pigeon Square where members of the public congregate and feed the pigeons,” said Anne Marie.
“Our thinking was about migration and how these birds are vilified when, in fact they are very intelligent creatures with a unique navigational system and helped save our lives during both world wars.”
As the project took flight, the duo worked with members of the public to gather their stories of migration and the decision-making behind why they settled in Bedford.
“We would gather these stories whilst they decorated an image of a pigeon,” said Sara.
“We encouraged everyone to attach a message they wanted to send with their pigeon out into the world.”
Sara and Anne Marie held seven workshops throughout Bedford including in two cafes in Church Arcade – the Hungarian cafe, Nomad and Aconchego, a Porguguese cafe – and with parents at Priory Primary School in Greyfriars.
They also worked alongside the Langar Project and the Pavement project who meet on Sunday evenings in Pigeon Square.
“This allowed us to engage with a group of people affected by homelessness so they could access our project,” said Anne Marie.
“Often, marginalised people are overlooked, but the stories they shared were vital to the project. They were very grateful for the chance to get creative without being judged and were extremely kind in helping us set up and pack away each visit, saying, ‘You give up your time for us, then we will give up our time for you”.
“All our workshops included people from diverse backgrounds, heritage, and abilities and through the workshops we enabled more people’s heritage to be recognised through discussions, the making of artwork and storytelling.”70 of the decorated pigeons have been printed onto vinyl and displayed in windows from Bedford bus station, around Pigeon Square and along Church Arcade.
Individuals’ stories of migration have been recored and you can hear these by accessing the QR code along the route. 30 pigeons are displayed as bunting, these were created at Bedford River Festival in 2024.
The art trail runs until 14 June.
