Creating a collaborative and respectful culture amongst the street artists and graffiti writers of Bendigo.
Rain, hail, wind and shine couldn’t keep the dedicated and passionate away, local artists brightened up Back Creek Art Trail once again.
Paint Jam saw Bendigo’s graffiti writers, rubbing shoulders with experienced and novice street artists. The mix of talent was incredible with several of the artists using aerosol for the first time. To get them started, Nacho Station held a basic skills workshop in the morning before letting them loose to paint the walls at Williamson Street Bridge. While the beginners painted side by side, we had some experienced graffiti writers on the opposite walls, sharing tips and tricks while everyone watched on.
Video by AJ Taylor images
Some more prolific and experienced artists headed on up to Mundy Street Underpass, they added to the existing multi colour mural that has been popular over the last 12 months. The final few graffiti writers made a start on the McIvor HWY Underpass which had not seen a fresh coat of paint for several years.
The Back Creek Art Trail was first activated in 2018 with Project Underpass, three underpasses were painted by 3 local mural artists in Bendigo. In the 12 months to follow there had been significant tagging and some pretty unsavoury messages shared on the walls, especially under Williamson Street Bridge. When the council got in touch with us to ask about the up keep of this mural, it was too far gone to repair and pressure washing sections of the walls would only create even more of a mess. We suggested activating the space again, this time with a focus on inclusion with the aim of giving artists ownership of the space and building some respect between artists who would otherwise never meet in person.
We first activated the space in 2018 as project underpass, with help from Creative Victoria (Regional centre for culture grants) take a squiz.
