By Tyler Wright
Belgrave’s Blacksmiths Way has been turned into a haven for art lovers, with the laneway now filled with street art for locals and visitors alike.
Over the past six months, between 60 and 100 artists have been working on creating works in the laneway; including full scale illustrative works, stencils and installation pieces.
“People are doing miniature little tableaus that they insert into nooks and crannies in the laneway and they’re what we call our discoverables,” project coordinator Tiffaney Bishop said.
“We’ve engaged three levels of artists; young tagger graffitiists, then accomplished graffitiists who are now doing significant mural works, and fine artists.”
Now known as Graff Street, the project was founded by the now-defunct youth arts mentoring organision tbC in 2015.
“In 2017, we did a second refresh and what started to happen was we were noticing people visiting the laneway who weren’t locals, and we were saying to them, ‘oh, have you come to Puffing Billy?’ and they said, ‘oh, no, we’ve come to see this, we’ve heard this is a bit like a suburban Hosier Lane,” Ms Bishop said.
“It’s taking on that even more this time.”
The key focus of the Graff Street initiative, Ms Bishop said, is youth outreach.
“It’s about engaging the young taggers and graffiti artists who are looking for walls but need legal spaces to actually spend time on and reduce the risk of getting caught,” she said.
“There’s four or five young artists involved in this project, and to be honest, there’s been some very transformative experiences and relationships built in this project, as there has in the past.”
On Saturday 27 May, Ms Bishop hosted a free tour through Blacksmiths Way for attendees to see the completed project eight years after it began.
“In an effort to support these young taggers and graffitiists, we’ve nominated a wall that will be repeatedly painted, even monthly, and we’ve set aside a small paint budget,” Ms Bishop said.
“When the project is finished, my biggest concern was leaving those young, mainly boys, unsupported…the idea is you paint it and you social media expose it.”
Ms Bishop is calling for community groups to help fund street art projects like Graff Street.
“My vision is that CFA, men’s shed, traders, community members, U3As, garden clubs, all sorts of people now need to come on board,” she said.
“I reached out on social media with this very call out saying that communities need to pay for the huge benefits that community arts projects bring and we need to work out a way of encouraging and inspiring the community to do that.”
