NEW artworks will be unveiled in Newport inspired by the Chartist Rising of 1839.

Artists have been working with schools and community groups as part of a project called ChARTism on the Hill to create art works exploring different aspects of the Newport Rising.

The artworks will be launched on May 19, when artists, participants and guests will view a special installation at St Woolos Cathedral.

They will then walk in the footsteps of the Chartists, down Stow Hill to Westgate Square where a major new piece of public art, the Chartist Milestone, will be unveiled close to the site of the 1839 massacre.

The design is based on an existing early 19th century milestone still standing in Cardiff Road, Newport, near the entrance to Belle Vue Park.

The project - commissioned and managed by Newport Live, and co-founded by the Chartist Commission and the Heritage Lottery Fund - is inspired by the Rising of 1839 when more than 20 Chartist demonstrators were killed by soldiers who opened fire into the crowd.

Armed workers from across the South Wales coalfield marched on Newport in the Rising, attended by nearly 10,000 demonstrators.

They were intent on freeing fellow democracy campaigners who had been incarcerated in the Westgate Hotel in Newport.

The art works also include a temporary installation at St Woolos Cathedral, titled what they were about, we are about.

A large-scale installation made of concrete and stone will recreate the streets of Westminster, featuring thousands of tiny clay shoes made by community groups and school pupils in Newport.

Each clay shoe will represent the people who marched for democracy in 1839, as well as the millions who have benefitted from their vision.

Stow Hill - where the Chartists marched - will also play host to a number of other artworks, including ceramic tiles exploring the People’s Charter.

Other works in Stow Hill will include Victorian shoe prints carved into paving stones by stonemason Will O’Leary and outside Bethel Community Church, a pair sandals made by Elin Hughes hinting at the many people fleeing undemocratic regimes who have found a new home in Newport.

Pupils from Pupils John Frost, Caerleon Comprehensive, St Woolos, Marshfield, Alway, Pillgwenlly and Maindee schools have attended workshops and produced ideas and art works as contributions to the project.

The main artists on the project - Dylan Moore, Ned Heywood, Julia Land, Parry and Glynn and George Gumisiriza - have worked with students from the School of Art and Design at Cardiff Metropolitan University.