Project 83

Project 83 captures one of Newquay's best-known local gathering places after dark, a venue associated with the biker community, but also home to live music, markets and events that bring together a much wider mix of people.

Project 83 had been on my radar for some time. It's an incredibly popular local venue, and one evening, while walking home from another event, I deliberately took a diversion past it to gather some night-time reference photographs.

The building itself is fairly ordinary, but viewed from the corner there were several details that made me stop: the illuminated entrance, people gathering outside, the telegraph pole cutting through the scene and, particularly, the distinctive Guinness bird mural wrapping around the side of the building.

Project 83 is known first and foremost as a biker venue, but its identity stretches far beyond that. Live music, craft and farmers' markets and other events bring different communities through its doors, and I think that's ultimately what interested me most.

Night changes an otherwise unremarkable corner of Newquay into somewhere with a clear sense of activity and belonging.

An Unexpectedly Quick Goodbye

When I first shared Project 83, the venue accepted a collaboration on the social post and the original 30cm painting sold that same evening to a collector elsewhere in the UK.

Greeting cards featuring Project 83 have since joined my growing Newquay After Dark collection.