Artists, shoppers, businesses and council staff have joined forces to fly the flag for a unique arts project celebrating Darlington.

The Semaphore as Metaphor project took to the streets on Friday, October29, inviting people to take up specially made flags highlighting different aspects of the town’s heritage, to communicate across distances with each other.

Known as the language of semaphore, often used for ship-to-ship communications across distances, if offered people in the town a chance to reach out to each other in a new and fun way and learn about a way of visually talking.

A team of local artists took the lead and filmed contributions from a host of participants at various locations across the town centre including St Cuthbert’s Church, Darlington Library in Crown Street, The Forum Music Centre, South Park bandstand, the riverside near DL1, the Market Square, the Yards, High Row, Joseph Pease Statue and the Majestic Theatre.

They will then be edited to create a short film to be distributed online.

The Northern Echo:

One of the contributors, Anton Hecht, said: “We had a fabulous response and got some great film footage which features some of the town’s most prominent landmarks such as the town clock, Market Hall and Pease statue.

“We can’t wait to share the finished film with everyone and hope to be able to showcase Darlington and it’s wonderful people across the globe.”

Councillor Andy Keir, the council’s cabinet member for local services, said: “We’re delighted to have been able to support this latest arts project through Creative Darlington, which offers a novel new way of sharing what is so great about our town.

“Our thanks to all the artists and to the local residents, our staff and those from town centre businesses and everyone who joined in to take part, we hope you enjoyed the experience.”

Hayley Warters, Lyall events and entertainment director at The Majestic Theatre, added: “It was fantastic for us to be part of this and input our own quirky ways to this project.

"The Majestic Theatre is keen to become more involved and help in whatever way we can, which also promotes our beautiful venue and keeps the arts alive!”

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