Mayor of Falmouth immortalised Cornwall Pride portrait

If you look around the council chamber you will seem many traditional portraits of former mayors in all their traditional finery.

However for her portrait, departing Falmouth mayor Kirstie Edwards commissioned Falmouth University illustration graduate Rasa Staniulyte to recreate one of her most iconic moments during her previous role as deputy mayor.

Artist Rasa Staniulyte with her painting which was unveiled at a meeting of Falmouth Town Council (Image: Cornwall Pride)

In 2022 Kirstie was invited to take part in the first Cornwall Pride march in Falmouth and ended up leading the parade waving a huge Cornwall Pride flag in the colours of the rainbow.

An iconic photo of Kirstie taken at the time has been captured on canvas by Rasa with the painting being unveiled by Cornwall Pride CEO Matthew Kenworthy Gomes at last week’s meeting of Falmouth Town Council.

A close up of the painting (Image: Cornwall Pride)

Speaking prior to the unveiling of the painting, Cllr Edwards said she’d commissioned it to mark the work “we’ve collectively achieved as this cohort of councillors and in the hope that future cohorts will reflect upon the work we’ve done and continue it so we can be as inclusive and fair as possible.”

The original photograph by Ollietphotography that the painting was based on (Image: Ollietphotography)

The painting is thought to the first ever to show a mayor waving a Pride flag.

Mr Kenworthy Gomes told councillors and members of the public who were attending the meeting that it was a huge honour to be asked to unveil it.

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He said two years ago he’d come and asked the council if they'd put pride colours across Falmouth and, with the support of Falmouth Town Council and Falmouth Bid, replicated it all again last year.

“Coming to Falmouth first absolutely set a tone for the rest of Cornwall," he said "and we’re truly proud of being part of a represented community here in Falmouth and this has since then travelled to the rest of Cornwall.”

He said Pride not only represented the LBGTQ+ community but also the entire marginalised community.

He said when, in 2022 as deputy mayor, Kirstie asked for a Pride flag and asked the organisers if they wanted her to be at the front of the parade, it was a pivotal moment for the organisation.

“For a mayor of a town to ask Cornwall Pride that, as the craziness was happening, was a moment which just literally made me stand still and I was so proud that Kirstie asked that because I believe that is what’s represented here.”