Find Street Art on your travels

I’m always searching out street art on my travels. Personally, I love the variety of Street Art, from paintings to sculptures, stickers to knitting. However, the spray paint style is definitely one of my favourites.

Street Art has long been a popular movement. Found on buildings, pavements, street signs and pretty much everywhere and all around the world. What we once knew as just graffiti is now also a huge contributor to some of this Street Art. Although I’m not condoning the illegality of graffiti, some of it is pretty good. Even some museums display pieces of Street Art, which have been valued at significant prices.

There are many ways you can experience Street Art around the world, so here’s a few recommendations to help you find Street Art on your travels.

Festivals

See the artists at work and hang out amongst the crowds at a Street Art festival.

A good place to start, when searching for events, is the Meeting of Styles website. These events take place Worldwide, throughout the year. With the next couple of months including Lisbon, Pristina and Antwerp.

Certain cities around the world host annual events. For example Upfest takes place in Bristol (UK). Cyprus also has a number of annual events, and even Hong Kong now holds a festival each year.

Work by Angus

Walking tour

If you prefer to admire the art when it’s less busy, make sure you look up where to find the best Street Art at your next destination. There are usually websites with maps although as the art work isn’t permanent, sometimes you will find a different piece at a location.

In many cities, guides offer Street Art tours but you can easily do these independently. Searching out Street Art on foot is a great way to explore off the beaten track.

At home

Look for Street Art in your home country, and revisit streets on your doorstep time and time again.

The nature of Street Art means other artists, or unfortunately graffiti artists too, create over pieces, again and again. Many of the festivals whitewash walls each year to allow the artwork to be replaced onto a fresh canvas.

Workshops

On of my favourite experiences was taking a Street Art tour and workshop in Shoreditch in London. As well as seeing some of the art and learning a little more about some of the current pieces, I got to give it a try.

Using stencils is much easier that freestyle spraying with a can of paint but it was certainly worth a go. It makes you appreciate the art work even more ;).

Popular artists

The most famous, or well known Street artist, is probably Banksy. But there are others who have been around for years. You can travel the world following the works of many artist’s, which is just another reason to travel as much as possible.