PUBLIC ART WARNING
What started as seemingly innocuous gripes from the local art establishment about "too much street art" in the city, soon turned into a co-ordinated crescendo of attacks in local media. As the popularity of Street Art grew with a mainstream audience, so did the resentment from the art establishment. Unelected Public Art committee's, museum directors, representatives from artist unions, cultural bureaucrats, curators and a rag tag team of courtiers to the cultural elite, soon took to the media decrying the social and cultural capital that Street Art was taking from the "field". Those who had previously supported and allocated funds to Nuart, now recommended and lobbied for drastic funding cuts. The cultural hegemony went in to overdrive in order to protect the status quo. To remain gatekeepers, to maintain position in what was and still is perhaps the most conservative public art program of any major city in the country. This series of works, sets out to highlight the issue, to question the right of those who allocate resources to not only attempt to define the field, but also to shape the mental enviornment of its inhabitants. In spite of the Arts Council's decision to remove our funding and local bureaucrats recent recommendations to reduce our city council support, we continue, and we continue with the same passion and energy of when we first started our journey. They say if you scratch a Liberal you'll find a Fascist, and as a dedicated antifascist organisation, we welcome the fight. However, this won't be fought in the confines of closed committee rooms, the fight, like the art -will be public.
The Nuart Team
