10:25am Friday 17th August 2007
By Graham Moody
Since 2001, Jeanne-Marie Eayrs and Susan Beresford have been using art as a way to bring the diverse communities of Croydon together.
They have organised more than 30 projects with their company Under Croydon, ranging from a cookbook of ingredients from Surrey Street market to a mural depicting the history of the borough in Dingwall Avenue.
It is for this work they have been nominated as the borough's diversity champion and Jeanne-Marie, who recently moved to Pennsylvannia from Croydon but commutes to the capital whenever a project is on the go, was delighted to hear the news.
"It's a wonderful thing to be nominated and recognised in the community," she said.
"We both love getting involved with the projects and it's great that we get so many volunteers to partake in them.
"We would love to transform Croydon with our vision of having public art everywhere and make it accessible to all."
Last year they unveiled a large mural in Dingwall Avenue that incorporated Croydon's history, a project in which more than 15 different community groups took part - discovering and exploring the borough's past as they went.
Their most recent project has been the Surrey Street cookbook.
Working with the market and Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College, they created a book full of the smells, tastes and sights of the stalls and recipes reflecting Croydon's diversity.
"We also organised an exhibition of photos to go alongside the cookbook, showing people what the stallholders do in their everyday lives and that they are not just stallholders," said 41-year-old Jeanne.
"The premise in everything we do is to try and get different parts of the community together.
"It helps to empower them and make sure they are recognised by the community."
Susan, who is also 41 and lives in Waddon, was equally delighted with the nomination.
She said: "We're absolutely happy to have been nominated.
"We have worked really hard to try and get art to different parts of the community that would not usually be able to enjoy it."
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