The Neurodiversity Umbrella Project

The Neurodiversity Umbrella Project

Documenting a colourful public art installation in Watford Town Centre, raising awareness of neurodiversity and celebrating the one in five of us who think differently.

The Neurodiversity Umbrella Project

CLIENT

Watford Town Centre BID

SECTOR

Charity · Community · Public awareness

SERVICES

Event filming · Editing · Final delivery

The brief

Watford Town Centre BID was bringing the Neurodiversity Umbrella Project to Hertfordshire for the first time, a colourful art installation of umbrellas strung across Queen’s Road, each one representing the one in five of us who have a neurodevelopmental condition such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia or Tourette’s syndrome. The installation ran from 27 July to 27 September 2024, marked by a launch event with stilt walkers and dancers.

The brief was to capture both the visual impact of the installation itself and the genuine community spirit of the launch event, working alongside ADD-vance, atria Watford and Dc2 Ents and Dance.

The finished content needed to work for the BID’s own promotion of the installation, and for the wider goal of genuinely changing how neurodiversity is understood locally.

The approach

Working alongside Watford Town Centre BID, the priority was capturing the launch day itself, since a one-off event like this could not be reshot.

Rather than a simple record of the day, the aim was content that helped viewers understand:

  • What neurodiversity actually means, in plain terms
  • Why Watford was chosen as the first Hertfordshire location for the installation
  • How local businesses and charities had come together to fund and deliver it
  • The genuine celebratory atmosphere of the launch event itself

Filming captured the ribbon-cutting ceremony, stilt walkers and dancers, and the installation itself once in place along Queen’s Road.

Production

The project involved covering a live public event in real time, with no second chances. This included:

  • Filming the launch event, including the ribbon-cutting and performances from stilt walkers and dancers
  • Photographing the installation itself once fully in place along Queen’s Road
  • Capturing genuine reactions from the public discovering the installation for the first time
  • Working with speeches from Watford Town Centre BID and the deputy Mayor of Watford
  • Editing footage and photography into content ready for the BID’s own promotion of the installation

Throughout, the aim was to reflect the genuine spirit of the day, colourful, warm and community-led, rather than a purely corporate record of a sponsored installation.

The result

The finished content gave Watford Town Centre BID genuine, usable coverage of a landmark community moment, the installation’s first appearance anywhere in Hertfordshire.

Kara Mesiano, Watford Town Centre BID’s manager, said the aim was to change the perception of neurodiversity locally, celebrating the strengths that come from thinking differently, and the coverage helped extend that message well beyond the two months the installation was actually in place.

By combining honest, colourful documentation with a genuinely important message, the project became something Watford Town Centre BID could point to as proof the town was becoming more inclusive, one installation, one conversation at a time.

Why this project worked

This project shows the value of documenting a moment properly, not just a photo of an installation, but the colour, the crowd and the genuine warmth of a town centre coming together around a cause worth celebrating.

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