Cardiff street art celebrating diversity washed away by mistake

A series of commissioned murals in Cardiff city centre was mistakenly washed away by cleaning staff after a “devastating” miscommunication.

The artworks – which covered 11 concrete pillars in the city centre – had been commissioned by For Cardiff, and were created to celebrate diversity by showcasing portraits of underrepresented women.

They were painted by three young female artists involved in the PWSH project, including Turner Prize nominee Beth Blandford.

PWSH’s stated aim is to “enable Cardiff-born and based emerging and established visual artists to decorate their city centre with artwork that celebrates and represents a breadth of local talent”.

“We are absolutely devastated that our artwork at the back of the old Debenhams was removed yesterday,” PSWH said in an Instagram post on Friday.

“We are not sure why or how this has happened, but we’re trying to get to the bottom of it and we will keep you all updated when we know more. Apparently, there has been some sort of city centre cleaning team ‘miscommunication’. That area is now a soul-less mess again,” the statement added.

In a public apology to PWSH, For Cardiff called the incident “a devastating error” and promised it would try to rectify the situation.

“We offer our sincere and heartfelt apology to the talented artists, Beth Blandford, Amber Forde and Temeka Davies who took the opportunity to brighten up Cardiff and contribute to its vibrant and exciting culture through their artworks … We’re working with the creative director of the project as to how we can best rectify this situation as quickly as possible.”