Large-scale murals giving Invercargill CBD fresh pop of colourPosted by On


Invercargill has been getting a zhuzh as part of an ongoing makeover of the city’s CBD.

Local and international street artists have converged on our southernmost city to create large-scale murals – many on older building walls.

“A lot of them look like they haven’t been touched for 100 years,” said event organiser Danny Owen, also known as DEOW.

Twenty-three artists and around 30 murals have been painted over seven days.

It’s part of the south’s biggest spray can art festival, South Sea Spray, to show the older structures a little love.

“You’ve got these old historic buildings and then you’ve got some buildings that were done in the ’80s, then you’ve got this brand new infrastructure doing in,” Owen said.

“But the old stuff starts to look a bit drab.”

South Sea Spray chairwoman and Southland Business Chamber spokesperson Pauline Smith told 1News, “It’s a really good time for the city. We’ve had all these major redevelopments.”

“It’s really the icing on the cake to making the city even more beautiful.”

The aim? To draw people in.

“You’ve got the benefits of foot traffic around the shops so businesses are getting more people in the door,” said Smith.

The festival has been fundraising hard to make it all happen.

Council, community trusts and other donors have donated more than $300,000.

But Owen said, “we are getting $1 million worth of art this week, put it that way.”

Artists have travelled from across the country and some as far as Japan.

“If you can add something that is more special…

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