AustralianGraffiti: Townsville Graffiti

Saturday, 2 December 2017

Townsville Graffiti

In the last few years many regional towns have started to embrace graffiti and street art culture. Examples of these towns include Geelong & Benalla (Victoria), Lismore & Byron Bay (NSW) and Townsville (Queensland). Each town has a slightly different angle on how they promote urban art as a tourist attraction.

Townsville city council has even gone as far to produce a street art brochure which provides a map and 16 different art pieces and separately includes illegal graffiti hot-spots.

Townsville City Council has created a Street Art Activation Framework from which there is a solid philosophy, vision and purpose behind the art.

The council unsuccessfully attempts to divide and separate the definition of street art and graffiti by simplification. It describes graffiti as illegal and street art legal. Whereas most artists, practitioners or vandals know some graffiti can be street art and most street art, if not all is not graffiti. So even the illegal works can be street art.

Objectives

(as stated and summarised to..)

Cultural-Professional development, career opportunities, valuing public art, encouraging art diversity
Economic-Increase activity in city, tourism, promoting diversity and innovation
Recreational-Responding to youth needs, Building interest in community spaces
Social-Encouraging collaboration, engaging with city youth, establishing civic pride
Urban Planning-Urban transformation, community engagement, promoting public spaces

The council has mapped graffiti done through Townsville and has identified 6 priority activation sites based on their high levels of graffiti. 4 of which (where graffiti was aggregated) included the suggestion of Legal walls with Hosier Lane (Melbourne) and Morphett Bridge (Adelaide) used as successful examples.

It has also looked at mimicking the graffiti on trains with the "mobile canvas" concept to have the sides of council garbage trucks as a place to paint.

https://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/community-support/arts-and-culture/street-art