Street Art Tour
Strangely, Landmark Street Art is based in Carlisle city where, until recently, we had no street art! As proud exponents of the benefits and beauty of being able to engage with art in unusual places, Landmark Street Art, driven by the passion and belief of Director Ben Heslop, set about changing this in 2018.
Ben says "I am lucky enough to travel with my work and be totally surrounded by amazing pieces of public art and work with some of the best in the business. It didn't make sense that I didn't try push this in my home city! I believe very strongly that in this day and age where city centres are facing tough times from the Internet, Brexit and Covid, that councils and businesses really need to think about people engage with the spaces they live work and travel through."
Ben leant on his connections and wall by wall, artist by artist he started to pull together a group of local and international artists to see the cities streets take on a new roll as a canvas for culture.
The public response has been amazingly positive and with every piece another opportunity was unlocked to bring more and more to the city streets.
"Seeing art outdoors in places you least expect it is such a powerful thing, so much art is tucked away in galleries and museums being seen by so few people. I wanted to tackle this and confront and engage people who would normally not view art and make them think. It is getting the message across that I don't want them to like everything they see, I want them to form an opinion, I want to change the view of the young people on their way to school, the pensioner out to buy food and the banker rushing past the advertising hoardings and stream of damp grey buildings"
A large 7m Tall portrait by Tymon De Laat from The Netherlands on Carlisle Old Fire Station.
After hooking up with Street Art Cities at Pow Wow Rotterdam Carlisle is now featured and has 14 pieces from artists from all over the world and up and coming local talents.
Follow this link and see what is on the city's walls either virtually or better still walk around yourself and see first hand what street art has done for this border city on the edge of the Lake District:
