Art in the Arches
47 arches. Three years. One open-air gallery at Elizabeth Marina.
Stretching beneath the arches of Elizabeth Marina, Art in the Arches brings together 47 large-scale murals created by professional artists, school pupils and community groups from across Jersey and beyond.
Developed over three years, the project has transformed a familiar waterfront route into a colourful outdoor gallery where everyone can experience art freely. The completed trail celebrates creativity, community and place, inviting people to slow down, explore the marina and see this much-loved part of St Helier through fresh eyes.
Originally conceived by local resident Mary Venturini and curated by artist and educator Jacqueline Rutter, Art in the Arches has grown from an ambitious public art project into a distinctive part of Jersey’s cultural landscape.
VISIT ART IN THE ARCHES
Art in the Arches can be found beneath the arches at Elizabeth Marina in St Helier.
The murals are free to visit and can be explored at any time. Whether you are walking around the marina, meeting friends, arriving in Jersey or simply passing through, the trail offers an opportunity to experience contemporary art beyond the walls of a gallery.
2026: SAFE HAVEN
The third year of Art in the Arches brought the project to a major milestone. Nineteen new murals completed the transformation of Elizabeth Marina, bringing the total number of artworks across the trail to 47.
Responding to the theme Safe Haven, artists and participants explored ideas of belonging, connection, resilience, nature and our relationship with the sea. At a working harbour shaped by arrivals, departures and changing tides, the theme offered many different ways to think about protection, welcome and what it means to feel at home.
The 2026 murals were created by professional artists Yulia Makayeva, James Colmer, Max Corbett, Sami “Kumo” Osman, Kate Sugden and Jamie Cole.
They worked alongside pupils and participants from Bel Royal Primary School, Mont à l’Abbé School, Hautlieu School, La Passerelle Primary School, Jersey Marine Conservation, Ocean Culture Life and ArtHouse Jersey’s Saturday Art School.
The year also introduced an international dimension to the project. Japanese exchange students visiting Jersey contributed their own mural, while a special collaboration with artists from Antigua & Barbuda celebrated the shared heritage, experiences and connections between island communities.
Together, these different voices created a collection of works reflecting personal stories, cultural identity, environmental concerns and the many ways a place can offer safety and connection.
The completed murals sit alongside those created during the project’s first two years, turning the marina into a varied walking trail filled with unexpected images, ideas and perspectives. From intimate reflections on identity and wellbeing to bold celebrations of nature and community, each work adds another story to the landscape.
Art in the Arches 2026: Safe Haven was delivered by ArtHouse Jersey in partnership with Ports of Jersey, with support from Viberts.
2025: OUT OF THE BLUE
Following the success of the project’s first year, Art in the Arches returned in 2025 with 14 new murals created by artists, schools and community groups.
The theme Out of the Blue was deliberately open-ended, inviting participants to explore ideas of surprise, identity, history, landfall and a sense of place. The resulting murals revealed the stories and unexpected possibilities that can emerge from apparently ordinary moments.
Five Jersey artists created individual works for the project: Rian Hotton, Ben Robertson, Layla May Arthur, Aimée Cast and Abi Overland.
Rian Hotton’s Beaufort drew inspiration from the Beaufort wind scale. A central circle symbolising calm was surrounded by keys representing hurricane-force winds, set against the image of a boat breaching waves. The work offered a powerful reflection on finding stillness during turbulent times.
Ben Robertson’s From the Sky – A Brief History of Aviation in Jersey used collaged archive imagery to tell a three-part story of the Island’s aviation history, moving through Air Race, Airfield and Air Pageant.
In Sunshine, Layla May Arthur followed the daily journey of the sun as it emerges from and returns to the blue sea, while Aimée Cast’s What’s Beyond? placed the often-overlooked ruins of Grosnez Castle at the centre of an imaginative new world.
Abi Overland’s Overnight Success challenged the idea that achievement happens suddenly, revealing the practice, failure and persistence that often remain hidden beneath the surface.
Schools and young people were again central to the project. Hautlieu School, Jersey College for Girls, Springfield Primary School and Rouge Bouillon Primary School each developed murals shaped by the ideas and experiences of their pupils.
Rouge Bouillon’s Message in a Bottle to My Future Self reflected on Year 6 pupils’ move to secondary school. The children imagined sending messages out to sea for their future selves to discover, capturing their hopes, questions and feelings at a significant moment of transition.
Students from Jersey College for Girls drew inspiration from poetry as well as paint. Working with English and poetry teacher Danielle Mynes, they explored the theme through their own writing and used words and imagery to develop the mural One Woman for Every Woman. The completed work celebrates strength, individuality and connections between women across different times and circumstances.
Community participants also included Ocean Culture Life and CAMHS, bringing further experiences and perspectives into the public space.
Through its mix of personal stories, hidden histories and imaginative responses, Out of the Blue continued to demonstrate how public art can make space for many different voices while changing the way people experience an everyday location.
2024: WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE
Art in the Arches began in 2024 with Water, Water, Everywhere, delivered by ArtHouse Jersey in collaboration with Jersey Water.
Artists Will Bertram, Robert Allen, Lucy Oates, Zara Le Cornu and Oli Nightingale created murals across 15 arches at Elizabeth Marina, each responding to water and its importance to Island life.
The first year established the creative foundations of the project, demonstrating the potential of the marina arches as a place for ambitious public art. The murals brought colour and character to the waterfront while creating opportunities for artists and communities to contribute to a changing shared space.
The project began with an idea from local resident Mary Venturini, who saw mural art at Elizabeth Marina as a way of bringing creativity into the community and helping to establish a new cultural identity for the area.
Curated by Jacqueline Rutter, the inaugural programme laid the groundwork for the following two years and began the transformation of the marina into the outdoor gallery visitors see today.