About us
Nuart Festival is an international contemporary street art festival held annually in Stavanger, Norway since 2001. It is widely considered one the world's leading celebrations of Street Art and is the foundational stone on which Nuart Aberdeen, Nuart Gallery, Nuart Projects and various other Nuart offshoots stand.
Nuart Festival provides an annual platform for national and international artists who operate outside of the traditional art establishment. From the first week of September an invited international team of street artists leave their mark on the city's walls, both indoor and out, creating one of Europe's most dynamic and constantly evolving public art events. The event aims to stimulate debate by challenging entrenched notions of what art is, and more importantly, what it can be.
Nuart aims to provide an internationally relevant, challenging and dynamic environment for artists, curators, producers, scholars and public alike; an event that aims to reflect the culture as well as participate it helping define it. Nuart aims to explore and present new movements and works with artists operating across the spectrum of 'Street Art'.
Street art has its roots in situationism, graffiti, post-graffiti, muralism, comic culture, stencil art, subvertising and activism amongst many other things. It is without a doubt the most exciting development in visual art for decades. A 'movement' that has caught the imagination of the general public, collectors, auction houses and curators the world over.
Nuart consists of a series of citywide exhibitions, events, tours, performances, interventions, debates & workshops surrounding current trends and movements in street art practice by some of the worlds leading practitioners and emerging names. The artists who attend the festival are among the most acclaimed and progressive public art practitioners in the world.
They are supported during the festival weekend by Nuart's academic conference, Nuart Plus, the world's first academic conference dedicated to a critical street art. The conference itself, is supported by the Nuart Journal, a peer reviewed academic journal organised by an international team of scholars aiming to improving the reception of those artforms and movements developing on the periphery which are part of a rich intangible cultural heritage - generally excluded from art historical and establishment research.
Nuart continues to pioneer a new breed of art project, one that is neither institutional nor commercial. Without the usual restraints of curatorial and corporate preferences, the event consistently breaks new ground, challenging the participants and expanding the form whilst improving the conditions that may allow others to follow.
Nuart is a not for profit organisation run by a small group of idealistic volunteers, vandals and bored arts professionals.
Martyn Reed
Founder and Director
