THIS week’s edition of Berrow’s Worcester Journal features a unique wrap-round artwork, which will celebrate its status as the oldest newspaper in the world.

The project is the brainchild of Worcester gallery curator Nathaniel Pitt, who commissioned four artists to interpret their idea of a front page of the weekly paper that can trace its history back to 1690.

“It’s really my gift to the citizens of Worcester and to help improve the cultural landscape of the city,” said Mr Pitt, who runs two art galleries, Pitt Project Space in Chestnut Walk in Worcester and Division of Labour in Cowleigh Road, Malvern.

“The contemporary art scene is growing in Worcester and I hope this will be a useful contribution to it.”

To create art works for the four-page wrap-round, Mr Pitt approached four leading contemporary artists, all of whom work with the media, print, public space and newspapers.

They were; New York-born Robert Barry, who now lives in Paris; Elizabeth Rowe, of Birmingham; Candice Jacobs, of Nottingham; and Chris Shaw Hughes, of Brighton.

Their subjects were as varied as their locations and included the Worcester Tornado of 1953 – Worcester, Massachusetts, that is – and an enlarged version of the catalogue of mail order giants Kay & Co, which was a major employer in Worcester from 1890 until 2007. Mr Pitt said the face of the news media is changing, with new challenges to be faced every day. “Increasingly the independence of local news is under threat,” he said, “and this is my tribute to it.”

His artwork titled Est. 1690, distributed with every copy of Berrow’s Worcester Journal, has a print run of 41,112.