UNIVERSITY of Chester students are sharing their creative skills in a blossoming partnership with a community interest company.

Art and design students are supporting projects run by Incredible Edible Knowsley which works with and for the community, growing food across Knowsley in public areas.

The project not only produces healthy food for the community but also brings communities of the Merseyside borough together, through supporting each other, making friendships, therapeutic horticulture and wider activities.

Incredible Edible Knowsley aims to: reduce food poverty; reduce isolation and loneliness; improve health and wellbeing, improve the environment and educate.

The first project the art and design department and CIC have teamed up on is the development of the identity for its new Horti-Culture project, run with fellow community interest company, ArtsGroupie.

Student Russell Hannick has designed an eye-catching logo for the project which the Incredible Edible Knowsley and ArtsGroupie teams are thrilled with.

With a headquarters at Court Hey Park, when permitted as part of the roadmap out of lockdown, the Horti-Culture project will deliver a blend of growing and creative workshops, combining growing from soil to fork with the arts, including story-telling, writing, blogging and much more using horticulture.

In the meantime, the team has put together some sessions that can be completed by families safely at home.

Associate professor Bernadine Murray, head of department for art and design at the University of Chester, said: “It’s important for us to support projects like Incredible Edible Knowsley which is contributing in an invaluable range of ways to the community.

“We’re really enjoying play a part in helping them to achieve their aims - and our students benefit too by practising their art and design skills, working with groups outside the University to provide experience alongside their academic studies.”

Student and designer Russell Hannick said: “I really enjoyed working with the Incredible Edible team to help make the logo for the project; combining two concepts to make a logo which worked well for both sides was a fun and challenging design project. It was a friendly, exciting and professional experience working with them.”

Karen Mower, director of Incredible Edible Knowsley, said: “I would like to say a big thank you to the Art and Design department at the University of Chester for all their support with our project at Incredible Edible Knowsley, and supporting us with design work for our new project that we have created together with ArtsGroupie."

“The Horti-Culture logo is fantastic and we love it; well done to Russell Hannick who I am sure has a bright and successful future with talents like this. We are looking forward to continuing working with the Art and Design department at the University, brilliant work and lovely people.”

For further information on Incredible Edible Knowsley, please visit: http://knowsleycommunityhub.co.uk/ or https://www.facebook.com/IncredibleEdibleKnowsley.

More details about ArtsGroupie, which promotes and provides access to the arts in the north west and beyond, are available at: https://www.artsgroupie.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/ArtsGroupieCIC.

To see more of Russell’s work, please check out: www.instagram.com/rusky_.