Bury Art Museum is encouraging people from Bury to get involved in creating a series of new postage stamp ideas inspired by the borough.

The project is part of the Spirit of a Place initiative which was responsible for the Stitch Your Space project at Radcliffe Library a couple of months ago.

As part of the Jubilee celebrations, artists Lee Crocker and Bob Nutts Jr have been supported by the council to work with the community of Bury to create a series of new postage stamp ideas inspired by the Bury area and people who live here.

Speaking about the project, Lee said: “We always believe in getting people to be creative with their surroundings.

“So, we’ve done the spirit of a place based on sketchbook socials where we want to encourage anyone of any ability who may never have been creative before to be inspired by their surroundings.”

The idea was inspired by the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and a postage stamp was chosen as they have the Queen’s head on, so instead we can celebrate the area of Bury.

The council only gave the green light for the project at the end of May so it will be going on throughout June and then will be showcased in July.

Lee added he just wants to get the word out there for people to get involved.

He said: “At the moment I’m trying to hear back from groups, I have a Friday art group which started off as a choices NHS group and it was the nurse who was working with people was trying to encourage them to get up in the morning and be productive.

“It’s one of my proudest moments, it’s a social group now, the funding has gone but they’ve been coming here for around 14 years, and I got so emotional because they all have their own styles and that was the basis for doing this stamp project.

“They’ve all become artists in their own right and have put their own heart and soul into it and that’s what we want to encourage in people, to get people to put their own heart and soul into art.

“We went to Radcliffe library recently and three ladies came for their sewing circle, and they were adamant they wouldn’t draw. But by the end of the session, they created three really good designs.”

One of the ladies from Radcliffe did a drawing of where she used to live and around her drawing, they wrote down all the memories that she spoke about whilst she was doing the drawing, and this is what Spirit of a Place is all about.

Lee added: “At the moment we only have around 12 stamps, but we want over 100 by July, there’s no limit. But everything will have to be in by the end of June.

“It’s about being inspired by what’s on your doorstep. It’s a museum out there, in every town there is a museum, and we are rich in it in Bury.

“Radcliffe has so much medieval history to it, and we want people from Prestwich, Ramsbottom and Tottington and Whitefield too.

“Everyone is creative they just don’t realise it.”

Workshops will be held throughout June at Bury Art Museum and Radcliffe Library.

The next free workshop will be at Bury Art Museum on Saturday, June 18 in the morning.

For people who want to get involved, they can visit the Facebook page called The Bury Post Project.

They can also ring Bury Art Museum to ask for information or email Lee Crocker at crockerart65@gmail.com for templates or information.

Once the workshops are completed, they will then take the 10 best designs and transform them into postage stamp templates for a small pop up exhibition at Bury Art Gallery & Sculpture Centre in July.

However, all the artworks will be posted online where people can see all the designs submitted.