Spring Fling on the hunt for things to paint
Written by author on October 22, 2013
Scotland’s nationally acclaimed contemporary visual art and craft event Spring Fling joins forces with street art collective Recoat to produce Spring Fling | Rural Mural.
Spring Fling | Rural Mural (SF|RM) will combine excellence of art production with cross discipline working between urban street artists and rural studio based visual artists, creating a series of murals, installations and painted vehicles across Dumfries and Galloway for Spring Fling 2014.
Through working with Recoat, SF|RM will enhance Spring Fling, Scotland’s nationally acclaimed visual art and craft event and gives two ambitious organisations the chance to work together using complimentary skills, knowledge and expertise. The project will engage with local communities through street art workshops, develop national and international audiences, and encourage movement around Dumfries and Galloway.
The project is at the very beginning with ambitions to adorn such things as farm buildings, empty shops in towns, rural vehicles such as tractors, buses and bikes with high quality murals. The murals will be created through collaboration between Recoat’s network of national and international street artists and Spring Fling artists. These will then become part of the Spring Fling open studio routes for the event 24 – 26 May 2014.
Throughout October 2013 Spring Fling and Recoat are calling out for local people to come forward with buildings, walls, vehicles and shop-fronts to be painted with a mural and become part of SF|RM.
There is an element of SF|RM called ‘unexpected things to paint’ – Spring Fling and Recoat welcome any ideas, however crazy, for anything local people might like to have painted which could become part of Spring Fling 2014.
Leah Black, Project Manager of Spring Fling urges people with buildings, vehicles, or ‘things’ to paint, to; ‘Think big, think bold, and think outside the box.’
She goes on to explain that ‘Spring Fling has a special magic that pulls art lovers from across the world to Dumfries and Galloway each May. At the heart of what we do are the artists and makers opening their doors to the public and each year we enhance this by pushing the boundaries of what an open studio event can be – SF|RM will do exactly this and we are delighted to be working with street art innovators Amy and Ali from Recoat.’
As part of SF|RM, Recoat will lead a series of street art workshops in 2014 for young people and communities linked to the murals and installations being created locally.
Amy Whiten Managing Director at Recoat says, ‘We are so excited to be working on this project with Spring Fling. A major part of our work at Recoat is about offering educational workshops that get more people interested in Street Art and painting Murals. The workshops in this project will generate ideas and themes for the murals the artists will paint. It is a really positive way for local people to be directly involved in the process.’
In order to explain more about street art, how SF|RM will work in relation to Spring Fling, and how artists, aspiring artists, young people, and people with ‘things to paint’ can get involved Recoat will lead a SF|RM Info Sharing Event on Monday 11 October 2013 at The Stove in Dumfries.
To submit an idea for a building, shop front, vehicle, or unexpected thing to paint please email Leah Black on leah@spring-fling.co.uk or call 01387 213 218 by 5pm on Monday 11 November 2013.
SF|RM Info Sharing Event is free to attend but please register your attendance http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/8654372461
