Break to the beat live – The Broughton 2021

On Friday 24th September 2021 Break to the beat in association with Elysium Events and Arkade Graphics organised a Hip Hop culture event at The Broughton Hungry Horse pub and restaurant located in Broughton Milton Keynes. The management at the venue contacted Break to the beat after visiting the Milton Keynes Hip Hop Culture Part 1 exhibition held during July & August 2021 at MK Gallery.

“Break to the beat live” event flyer by JMC\Elysium events, 2021.

The event entitled “Break to the beat live” featured several DJs, rappers and performers from Milton Keynes’s Hip Hop community against a back drop of graffiti artwork created by local artists for the summers Hip Hop culture exhibition. The below video was assembled from footage filmed during the event. Continue reading

Tinkers Bridge Paint Jam (Part one)

During September 2019 Arkade Graphics organised a collective of local graffiti artists to regenerate an aging mural that covered the double underpass running between the Milton Keynes estates of Tinkers Bridge and Simpson. On a historical level the event holds great significance as it marks the first, and only time to date that four of the cities pioneering first generation of graffiti artists (Urbanist, James Jessop, Chase One and Rolek One) have collaborated on a joint piece of artwork.

All the above artists established themselves as writers in the 1980s and completed the entire first section of the underpass together with organiser Arkade and some assistance from Mega. Photos of the artwork have recently featured in Hip Hop Culture exhibitions organised by Break to the beat at The Open University and MK Gallery. The below collection of images show the mural in completed sections by each of the artists.

“Urbanist” by Urbanist – Tinkers Bridge, Milton Keynes, 2019. Continue reading

Tinkers Bridge Paint Jam (Part two)

Welcome to the second part of the documentation of the Tinkers Bridge Paint Jam. Like the artwork displayed in part one the images in this section were also created in September 2019 and cover the entire second section of the double underpass that runs between the Milton Keynes estates of Tinkers Bridge and Simpson. To view the artwork created in the first section of the underpass please see: Tinkers Bridge Paint Jam (Part one).

The second section of the mural which is located at the Simpson end of the underpass was created by graffiti artists Siren, Focus, Loki, Scuba, Tops and Vapor. These artists, some of which are Milton Keynes natives, make up elements of later generations of prolific local writers. The below images display the various sections of the mural by each individual artist.

“Siren” by Siren – Simpson, Milton Keynes, 2019. Continue reading