Frankston City Council’s graffiti tours have walked away with the top prize in the 2021 Australian Street Art Awards for Best Street Art Tour.
“This is wonderful recognition for Frankston. The City is truly transforming into a vibrant destination for events, arts and culture,” Mayor Nathan Conroy said.
“The Street Art Tours are the result of a cross-Council collaboration to build a tangible experience for residents and visitors around these magnificent artworks dotted across the City.
“Frankston is full of amazing arts and culture assets, and building these experiences is a wonderful way to help people engage with our City.”
The city’s tours ran monthly initially and are now run twice weekly to keep up with demand.
“We are so proud to have hosted over 30 national and international artists over the last four years as part of the Big Picture Fest. And we will be welcoming more with the Fest returning (14 – 20) March, the City’s artworks will swell from 40 to over 50 murals.”
State Member for Frankston, Paul Edbrooke MP, said: “I was absolutely delighted to hear that Frankston won the National Award for the Street Art Tours.”
“Frankston has been put on the map and we are being nationally recognised once again,” he said.
The Frankston Street Art Walking Tours received the Gold Award for the Best Street Art Tour at the 2021 Australian Street Art Awards announced from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast on Friday night.
The Frankston tour, operated by Frankston City Council, nudged out the Dinosaur Canyon Experience Tour, a deep dive into a prehistoric world created as part of the Age of Dinosaurs in Winton Queensland, which took out the Silver Award, and Bronze Award winner, Big Rivers Portrait Series, a mural collection in Katherine NT that honours people who have helped forge the Big Rivers region identity.
The Australian Street Art Awards encourage Australians to explore world-class street and public art that is safely accessible all year round and found in every corner of the country.
Commenting on Frankston City Council’s Gold Award win, the judges said the City had been doubly clever in firstly hosting the annual Big Picture Fest that created the 40 murals while forging a street art legacy and, secondly, in leveraging this legacy through the tours.
“This is a world-class example of how street art can operate as an activation and immersive experience to generate civic pride while also bolstering the local economy through tourism,” the judges said.
“What stood out for us is how the tours are embraced by locals who want to show off ‘their’ art to visiting friends and relatives, creating a win-win situation for everyone involved – the Council, residents, visitors and the artists whose works are on show.”
