Ample empty, broken buildings gave Christchurch City the opportunity to burst on to the street art scene after the 2011 earthquakes, and the city has continued to foster that identity well into its rebuild.
Ample empty, broken buildings gave Christchurch City the opportunity to burst on to the street art scene after the 2011 earthquakes, and the city has continued to foster that identity well into its rebuild.
One of the hardest hit areas was New Brighton. Here you’ll find a huge number of works all jam packed into our small village, including works from some of Christchurch’s and the world’s, top street artists.
We chatted with Gavin Fantastic (A.K.A Rubble City) from The New Brighton Outdoor Art Foundation about the history and future of street art in New Brighton.
“One of the things we’ve got here is the ocean, the other thing we’ve also got is world class art work. We have world class artists coming through here. We have locals as well that, some of the best artists in the world come out of Christchurch, and they’re painting in New Brighton.”
Street art really kicked off in New Brighton after the Christchurch earthquakes. The community got together to create an event called Mural Madness, where abandoned buildings were painted. The New Brighton Outdoor Art Foundation was created to breath life back into the walls of our village.
“It brings colour, creativity, it brings inspiration. It helps in a way, to hide what’s behind the facade of the art. A lot of these buildings are still empty since the earthquakes. People walk through and say; “Isn’t New Brighton looking colourful and nice now!” People are becoming proud of the area.”
With such a large concentration of artworks on our walls, all within a few minute’s walk of each other, it’s an ideal spot to simply wander down our streets and alley ways to see what you might discover…
Start with the New Brighton Clock Tower. it might not look like much, but it holds what we think is the oldest street art in the area:
“Street art, and urban art are all temporary, and it’s quite cool to see something that’s coming up to being 100 years old”
From here you don’t have to go far before you bump into more art works, but to make sure you don’t miss anything, check out our online map and create your own street art walking tour, and learn a little more about the individual works.
