Hit the Bricks street art festival returns to Newcastle

The second annual Hit The Bricks event,  the brainchild of fine artist Sally Bourke and graphic designer Carl Morgan,   allowed more of the city’s building owners to select an artist to makeover their unused spaces using rollers, brushes and aerosols.

Ms Bourke said street art across the world had the power to draw visitors into cities.

‘‘We’ve had five or six artists tell us that this is the biggest street art event in the country, and all of them say that the scale of work here is exceeding the scale of work in Melbourne,’’ she said. 

‘‘Newcastle has everybody watching it – everyone is intrigued by the idea that a place would allow so many artists in and be so accepting of creativity.

‘‘This is a visual indicator to people everywhere that this is a vibrant city.’’

Ms Bourke said the event also gave budding Hunter artists an insight into  other styles and techniques. 

 Adnate, who created the striking image  of an  Aboriginal boy in Wickham last year teamed up  with Numskull to work on a King Street site seven stories high.

Ms Bourke said she hoped all of this year’s works would still be in place next year.

‘‘We want to encourage people who live here to get out of their cars, get on their bikes and have a look at their city, to notice things they’ve never seen before, to re-engage,’’ she said. ‘‘People going to work on Monday are going to see a range of new and interesting things – and if they can’t see them, they’re not looking hard enough.’’

By MICHAEL McGOWAN

THE scale of the Hit the Bricks street art festival has ‘‘exploded’’ since it debuted in Newcastle last year, festival co-ordinator Sally Bourke says.

‘‘We earned the trust of businesses last year that we can make an area a safer, brighter, happier place,’’ she said.

‘‘We made people excited to live in the city again [and] showed we could create something really positive and beautiful.’’

Hit the Bricks brings street artists from across Australia and overseas into Newcastle for a weekend that transforms the city.

The festival kicks off its second year this weekend, and Ms Bourke said the success of 2013 had given the organisers the confidence to expand on their vision.

‘‘We have people contacting us to paint on their walls now,’’ she said. ‘‘Street artists and people involved in the scene know the potential the form has to add to an area, and I think after last year people in Newcastle know that too.’’

Ms Bourke said organisers chose walls that not only ‘‘offer the best vantage points’’, but also areas that would be improved by the addition of colour.

‘‘We try to be strategic by choosing areas we think could do with a bit of work, walls that maybe have damage to them or are unsightly,’’ she said.

This year more than 20 of the city’s walls and streetscapes will be transformed by a contingent of local and international street artists.

The festival is also extending its reach to include Mayfield.

Click here for the map to plan your visits.

Melbourne artist Adnate is back after last year creating one of the festival’s most iconic images – a portrait of a young Aboriginal boy on Hannell Street in Wickham.

He said that while there were other events like Hit the Bricks, it had established itself as the ‘‘cornerstone’’.

This year he will collaborate with Sydney artist Numskull on a King Street site seven stories high.

The two had originally planned to work on separate pieces, but a problem with one of the sites forced a last-minute collaboration; something that hadn’t seemed to faze the artists.

‘‘The thing about street artists is we’re used to collaboration, it’s a bit of a thing in our scene,’’ Adnate said.

‘‘It really wasn’t that hard, we just sat down for probably 45 minutes today and talked about it, like I said it’s a pretty natural thing.’’

The two artists have radically different styles – Adnate is known for his portraits and Numskull for composition – and he said that would bring an exciting combination to an extremely prominent piece of the city’s real estate.

‘‘The clash of both of our styles is going to be something really different and I think it’ll produce something really interesting,’’ he said. 

About 28 artists will take part in the festival.

For more information on the festival click here.