Bringing bare walls to life

Urban environments don’t have to be humdrum. We’re worth more than that. There’s room for colour, for imagination, for humour on even the plainest of walls.

The Spennymoor Mural Festival, back for a second year in County Durham, is a great example of what can be done with a bit of enthusiasm. Taking a yard just behind the high street as its hub, and spreading across the town, the project is all about reminding us that we can have more.

Perhaps the star attraction this year was a new work from Voyder, one of the country’s leading street artists (see the headline pic). And wherever you stand on the ‘art vs graffiti’ debate, there’s no doubting the quality on display here. His Spennymoor work dominates a gable end with the subtle shading of a Rembrandt allied to the stylings of the 21st century. Incongruous? Maybe. Intriguing? Definitely.

Elsewhere, a bare brick wall down a back alley is treated to a splash of colour. Bumping into Strike Collective as they were winding down on Thursday evening was a delight: happy to chat, keen to encourage my daughter’s own artistic hopes. This is how an art project can engage with a community while brightening an unprepossessing corner of town.

On one level, it’s a bit of urban regeneration. Rundown streets refreshed, an injection of vibrancy, a talking point (even for the old codgers grumbling ‘call that art?’ into their pints). But that’s just the start. This kind of street art, often dismissed as trivial at best or downright anti-social at worst, becomes a way of engaging grassroots and allowing people to feel a sense of ownership in their communities. At the top end of the scale, a tie-in with the town’s impressive Bob Abley Art Gallery provides an opportunity to for artists to show their work in a setting that may have seemed out of reach – as well as generating a few sales to support the creative process.

Organiser Lewis Hobson, familiar for his impressive work across the region with Durham Spray Paints and more recently involved in the Durham Ice Rink exhibition, sees the Spennymoor festival as a key way to connect creatives with the wider cultural ecosystem.

“The mural festival is kind of in the middle,” he said. “It links up artists painting on walls with arts organisations and galleries, potential sponsors and grant people, even paint companies who can donate some supplies.

“I’ve got grassroots people on the streets, people who never considered themselves artists. We’re getting them working on legal walls, spaces in the community where people are encouraged to do their art, and events like the festival build a flow right up to the top of the cultural structure with some of the biggest arts organisations in Durham.

“It’s like a link in a chain: at one end I’m getting street artists involved with legal walls, at another we have some graffiti writers starting to use the festival as a springboard to stage their own exhibitions.”

The pipeline is already starting to flow. Both festivals incorporated workshops to encourage people to grab a spray can and see what they could do. All were welcome: the youngest first-timer at this year’s workshops is still in primary school. More detailed sessions looked at the full process of building a mural from concept to completion, while some participants from last year’s workshops were back to contribute their designs to the 2024 event.

As the festival grows, so does the scope to nurture creativity. “Once we’re a bit bigger, we’ll have more to offer when we meet someone at a legal wall who’s interested in doing something,” added Lewis. “We’ll have the knowledge of where to go, but we’ll also be able to offer the chance to come to the mural festival and help organise the gallery there, and next year we might be able to get people working on their own exhibitions.”

For more on Lewis and his work, check out CYAN CIC. For some thoughts on the culture and philosophy behind street art, take a look at the Street Artcheology substack.