Rugby League World Cup, Warrington
tournament legacy • community collaboration • visual narrative • bespoke mural • hand painted
“Stef was commissioned by Warrington Borough Council to produce a large-scale artwork which was part of a trail around the town centre. The Bird of Paradise wings were based on the Raggiana Bird of Paradise which features on Papua New Guinea’s flag, and were part of a larger project to welcome the Papua New Guinea Rugby League team to our town as part of the RLWC tournament.
Stef worked with adults with additional learning needs to design the wings and produced something to a highly professional standard which totally represented the group’s interests and ethos whilst reflecting her own individual style.
Stef also produced a detailed town centre trail map for this project, working closely to the brief and showing great patience in going back to her design to make the required tweaks.
Stef is always able to answer the brief, asking all the right questions and works to a highly professional standard.
I would have no hesitation in recommending Stef for similar projects.
Lynn Radcliffe, Cultural Partnerships Development Manager - Warrington Borough Council
In Autumn 2022, my hometown of Warrington hosted a series of games for the postponed Rugby League World Cup 2021. They also hosted the National team from Papua New Guinea, who were competing in the games and had fixtures at the local Halliwell Jones Stadium.
To celebrate hosting the games, Warrington Borough Council commissioned five local artists to collaborate with community groups to co-design murals that illustrated the theme of the tournament; ‘the power of together’. The aim was to make use of the wings of the Raggiana Bird of Paradise that features on the Papua New Guinea flag, creating an artwork trail around the town that would lead to the Stadium.
I collaborated with Creative Communities, a charity that provides social and educational activities for adults with additional needs. My group represented a range of different abilities, and the challenge was to support the group to analyse the concept of the theme, and create a visual narrative that communicates what the theme means to them.
I created a range of word games and art challenges to help the group to explore the theme of togetherness, and they eventually decided that their inclusive choir ‘Beautiful Noise’ was the perfect metaphor. The group includes both verbal and non-verbal members, and even though not everyone is able to sing, the voices of those that can lift everyone up and provide a joyful experience for everyone on stage.
My final mural features the colours of the rainbow, which the group felt was a great symbol for togetherness. I designed the wings to be deliberately asymmetrical to celebrate difference. The story of the choir is told through the feathers, which include sound waves and musical notes. Some are silent, to represent the non-verbal members, but the overall effect is loud with colour and vibrancy. I have also included some original drawings from the group.
In addition to the mural, I also designed a colourful and accessible map to guide people around the whole art trail.
“We were invited to join in with the Birds of Paradise Project through Culture Warrington as part of the Rugby League World Cup and we were delighted when we were paired up with local artist Stef Woof to work with us.
Stef delivered two workshops with our members to get their creative juices flowing in designing a Bird representing Creating Adventures using the Papua New Guinea Birds of Paradise.
Stef was wonderful, patient and really did manage to come up with a design with our members to represent their thoughts and ideas about what it should look like. Our members were absolutely delighted to see the completed project created by Stef in Warrington Town Centre. Thank you, Stef!”
Susan Totton, Community Engagement Coordinator, Creating Adventures
