Reading Solar Mural: free painting sessions until 29 August

Reading has two weeks left to help paint a mural that will also generate electricity. Free drop-in painting sessions for the Solar Mural at New Directions College in Whitley run until Saturday 29 August 2026, and nobody needs to book or to have picked up a brush before.

The mural is a joint project between the artist Commando Jugendstil and New Directions College, Reading’s adult and community college, and it will turn a wall at the college’s South Reading Centre on Northumberland Avenue into a large painted artwork fitted with photovoltaic panels. Reading Borough Council put out a call for volunteers on 11 August, describing it as “a new cultural landmark for everyone”, and the college’s own project page carries the full schedule.

Where and when to turn up

Two venues, two patterns, per the college:

• New Directions College, South Reading Centre, 330 Northumberland Avenue, Whitley, RG2 8DH (opposite South Reading Leisure Centre): Tuesday to Friday, 9am to 4pm. Parking is available on site and the number 5 bus stops at Stockton Road.
• Reading Bike Hub, 14-16A King Street, RG1 2HE, in the town centre: Saturdays, 10am to 6pm. Most Reading buses stop on King Street.

Sessions began on 16 July and finish on 29 August, so the remaining dates are 18 to 21 August and 25 to 28 August at the college, and Saturdays 22 and 29 August at the Bike Hub. The college says volunteers “can give as much or as little time as you can”, and the council’s release repeats that “no registration is required”. The workshops are funded by Arts Council England.

What the finished wall will do

This is not a painted wall with a solar panel bolted on. The college’s project page describes a design built around seven “constellations”, one for each day of the week, from a Food Forest for Monday to Joined Hands for Sunday, painted around a central figure of people gathered at a fire. The panels are ColorBlast Design panels by Kameleon Solar, coloured photovoltaic panels made in Roosendaal in the Netherlands, so the panels can sit inside the picture rather than as black rectangles on top of it.

The interactive part comes from PIR motion sensors. As people walk past, LEDs set into the artwork light up in line with the stars in the design, and the council says the wall will also carry sound. Cllr Rachel Eden, Reading’s lead councillor for education and public health, said the project is about “showing that green technology can be creative and accessible”.

Neither the college nor the council has published a figure for the panels’ output or a completion date for the finished mural, and we have not guessed at either.

What it means for you

If you fancy an afternoon of it, just go. No booking, no cost, no experience: the college’s wording is “come along, pick up a paintbrush and help us bring this amazing mural to life”. Weekday sessions are at the college in Whitley; if you work in the week, the Saturday sessions at the Bike Hub on King Street are the ones for you, and there are two left.

Getting there. The South Reading Centre has its own car park, which matters because Northumberland Avenue is a long way from town on foot. For the Bike Hub, King Street is in the middle of town, so our Reading parking guide has the nearest car parks; the bus is easier.

Once it is up, it stays. The point of the project is a lasting piece of public art on the college wall in south Reading, and the people who paint it will be able to point at their bit of it. If you want to see what else is on around town over the bank holiday, our things to do in Reading round-up covers the rest of the month.