Love Kensington + Chelsea Street Art

Kensington + Chelsea Art Week (KCAW) is a festival celebrating the borough's artistic legacy and abundant creative future. Founded in 2018 and developed with community consultation, KCAW shines a light on the area's unexpected and unique cultural offer across a variety of studios, museums, galleries, exhibition spaces and businesses. In addition to its yearly public art festival, the organisation also has a year-round programme.

Created on temporary hoardings, Love Kensington + Chelsea is an ongoing public art initiative dedicated to bringing great art and creative flare to unusual sites. KCAW and the RCA have collaborated together to put emerging artists' work in the spotlight, whilst making a positive contribution to the area's urban landscape and celebrating the histories of the borough.

The most recent mural was created by Adalberto Lonardi (MA Interior Design), using a large temporary hoarding at 7 Lansdowne Road in Holland Park. This project was supported by London Projects and Studio Indigo.

Kensington + Chelsea Art Week invited RCA students to develop proposals for the mural. Three shortlisted graduates were invited to develop designs and then local residents and the wider public were invited to vote for their preferred artwork.

Artists were encouraged to research local history and engage with the architects behind the building's restoration and renovation, using their findings as the foundation to create a site-specific mural linked to its location.

Lonardi's winning design, Together as One, celebrates the power of the Notting Hill community as a symbol of harmony and unity for a better tomorrow. Inspired by local history and the architectural restoration of the site, the drawings represent three stories in time:

• The first panel depicts an time when pottery making and farming brought together young and old residents of the rural Knottynghull village.
• The second panel represents an early Portobello Market, where the relationships between the vendors and customers was vital to energise the life of the streets.
• The third panel presents the intimate moment of a family preparing for the annual Carnival inside a recently renovated Georgian house.

The final designs are chosen by public vote. The project creates temporary landmarks to identify the neighbourhood geographically for residents, businesses and visitors; to increase a sense of civic pride; strengthen connection across the community; and celebrate the vibrancy and creativity of the borough.