The Big Picture Fest wrapped up its second annual event last week in Frankston’s city centre. It was a massive success, seeing nine all-star Street Artists transform walls and change perspectives.
The Street Artists came from all over the world, including Phat1 and Lady Diva from New Zealand, SatOne from Germany, Lucy Lucy from France, Peeta from Italy, and Clap Meataxe, Makatron, Sins One, Sam Songailo and Adrian Doyle from Australia.
From abstract to photorealist, these works of art are absolutely fascinating and awe-inspiring.
We wanted to know all about how The Big Picture Fest came to be, so we caught up with Andrew Moon, Manager Arts & Culture with Frankston City Council to get the inside scoop.
SatOne - "Counterbalance", 31 Beach Street
How did The Big Picture Fest get started?
Frankston has been undergoing a revitalisation, with support coming from both the State and Local governments. A recent redevelopment of the Frankston rail station has provided the opportunity to look at how to activate, transform and bring to life Frankston’s city centre.
A Street Art festival was proposed in 2017, and to ensure it proceeded with a strategic vision for Frankston City a master plan was developed to shape the event. We launched our first event in March 2018, covering seven new walls in the city centre. In 2019, we were able to increase this to nine walls. The Big Picture Fest has left a huge legacy for Frankston City.
The Big Picture Fest Block Party on Gallery Lane. Art by Clap Meataxe and Makatron.
How does this all get organised? It must be logistically challenging to get all these artists here for one week.
It requires a lot of planning over the course of the year ahead of the event. We work closely with the festival curator, Joel van Moore (aka Vans The Omega), to match city centre walls to Street Artists. As Joel is connected to the Street Art community, he is able to assess which Artists are best suited to which walls.
Finding the walls to paint is exciting, but also sometimes challenging. While it is easy to identify walls that would be great canvasses, permission is required from the building owner, and it is sometimes difficult to track them down. Most building owners that we have contacted have been receptive to the idea, and we’re finding now that we’re a couple of years into the event that it’s seen as a real positive for activating the area.
Blank canvas, Gallery Lane
How do you make the final call on which artists are engaged?
We have tried to find a balance of international, national and local Street Artists for the event. The City is incredibly proud of the world-class artwork that has eventuated as part of the event. Bringing in high profile Street Artists from close to home and around the world has helped cement Frankston as an arts and culture destination.
Peeta, Frankston Library eastern wall
How do you work with the local Street Art community?
Working with the local Street Art community is a big part of this event. To ensure we have local representation we open up an Expression of Interest. This year we picked three artists with local ties (Adrian Doyle, Sins One and Clap Meataxe) who absolutely knocked it out of the park.
Local Street Artists also painted over the course of the week. These artists work quietly at their art and they’ve created some really spectacular work.
Clap Meataxe – “Emerge” and Sins One, Gallery Lane
What are your future plans for the event?
We plan to continue the event for at least the next couple of years, and to look at how we can activate these spaces and increase the Street Art collection. It has really transformed the city centre, and we can only see positives in how engaging and vibrant it has made the area.
Phat1 and Lady Diva - "The Graceful Ascent", Ross Smith Ave.
The Big Picture Fest by the numbers
Number of walls: 9 walls
Number of Artists from Frankston: 3 live or have lived in Frankston City
Number of Artists from Victoria: 6
Number of Artists from elsewhere in Australia: 1 (South Australia)
Number of Artists from overseas: 4 (2 from New Zealand, 1 from Germany, 1 from Italy)
Number of cans of spray paint: roughly 700
Litres of paint (in buckets): roughly 280L
Lucy Lucy at work, Gallery Lane
Andrew Moon is the Manager Arts & Culture with Frankston City Council, responsible for the Frankston Arts Centre, public libraries, major events and public art. He has spearheaded the idea of a Street Art Festival for Frankston since taking on the role in 2014.