NUART - a year-round street art festival in Norway

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Each city has its own depressed areas, where there used to be industry and life, and now even hungry street dogs are afraid to show up there. Somewhere the city authorities simply wave their hand at such areas, unable to do anything with them. And in Norwegian city of Stavanger the authorities gave one of the half-abandoned areas to the artists, declaring it a zone for year-round festival street art NUART.

In some places, the authorities are diligently getting rid of the historical heritage of the city and interesting places in it, building them up with faceless new buildings for the sake of momentary financial benefits. And in others, the authorities, on the contrary, are creating a new historical and cultural environment, making the once depressed areas new city attractions, where people from all over the world will come.

An example of the second type of urban policy is the Norwegian city of Stavanger, where the authorities have turned an almost abandoned industrial area into a world Mecca for creative people.

It was enough to declare the area the venue for the ongoing NUART street art festival and invite everyone to take part in it. Several dozen objects were given out to creative people, which can be used without any restrictions as places for their work, both outside and inside.

The beginning of the NUART initiative was laid in 2006. And this year has begun the sixth in a row, but in fact has not stopped for the sixth year already. Over the past six years, the "festival" district of Stavanger has developed into one of the most dynamic, ever-changing places in the world.

Some new works appear here almost every day, exhibitions, performances and other events are held. World famous street artists such as Banksy, Alexandre Farto and many, many others have noted on the walls in the area.