SIX female artists from across the UK will be bringing "new light and colour" to forgotten walls around Blackburn town centre.

Blackburn Open Walls, the town’s first walking street arts festival, will take place in June, curated by Blackburn-born artist Hayley Welsh, who creates large-scale street art and exhibits internationally.

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The festival is part of Urban Room Blackburn, organised by Blackburn is Open, and is a celebration of art, architecture and public space with a focus on experimentation and innovative practices that aims to inspire new ways of thinking about the town centre.

Ms Welsh’s vision began two years ago when she created a piece of street art on Blackburn’s Exchange building which stated: "Be happy in this moment. This moment is your life."

After that she said she had been inspired to create more public art within Blackburn on a larger scale: “While I was painting, people were stopping and talking about the artwork. The creative conversations between strangers was really special.

“Whether people liked or didn’t like the painting, it didn’t really matter. It was just the engaging and coming together of communities I loved and street art is so special to be able to make those moments happen.”

This time five other artists from across the country will join Ms Welsh in decorating the walls of Blackburn from Monday to Saturday, June 20 to 25.

After the art has been created, there will be a walking tour to showcase the range of themes and approaches on the Saturday with a closing celebration at 5pm.

Ms Welsh said: “This is a chance for people who have lived here their whole life to see Blackburn in a new light and colour.

“I really want people to be proud of where they live and the beauty of Blackburn, and show the work of incredible female street artists.

“There aren’t many female street artists out there – the street art scene is still quite a masculine genre, so we want to inspire girls and show them that we can climb scaffolding and ride scizzorlifts, and create large things too.”

Running alongside this festival will be the Limited Edition exhibition curated by local female artists Alexandra Gallagher.