CONNECTING PEOPLE AND PLACE THROUGH THE POWER OF PUBLIC ART
CONNECTING PEOPLE AND PLACE THROUGH THE POWER OF PUBLIC ART
FAQ gives you answers to the most common questions.
The WALLSTREET festival 2025 is a movement and an outdoor art exhibition in our common urban space. Through the creation of 1000 works of art with a variety of expressions, the festival contributes to the attractiveness, identification and orientation of places. WALLSTREET leads the way for the meaning and place of art and culture in a changing urban environment.
WALLSTREET
Connecting people and place through the power of public art.
A movement for happier communities and a kinder world.
Impacting humanity to become more aware.
WALLSTREET brings people together – residents, municipalities and companies – to contribute to new artistic stories where they live and work. The purpose is that neighbors and artists together create places of significance that deeply touch and mean something to them.
For WALLSTREET, the spirit of the place is important. The local anchoring and contact with those who live and work on the site is central to sustainable development. WALLSTREET is about neighborhoods together with professional artists and creators in the small give new life to their own places, to largely contribute to a better world. This applies to the spirit of the place as well as the place’s physical environment and design.
Participation and art bring people together, create elation and give a sense of context. When we can deeply see ourselves in a place, we feel at home and care about it. We care for and are careful about the local environment we ourselves have been involved in creating. What we touch, often touches us.
Connecting people and place through the power of public art.
A movement for happier communities and a kinder world.
Impacting humanity to become more aware.
Above all, the city has been challenged – in its everyday life, but also as a phenomenon and idea. During hard times – activities within and close to art and culture usually becomes particularly exposed, at the same time it has become clear how important art and culture are to the city’s soul, its interplay and attractiveness. For that reason we twist the “business as usual” 180 degrees based on the fact that it is impossible to solve current challenges with the same thinking that created them.
WALLSTREET 2025 will take place all around Sweden in the summer of 2025.
We have chosen not to have a specific theme. However, we encourage participating artists to take into account the spirit of the place as input in the work. The world at large right now has several highly topical inevitable themes we all have to deal with, such as the climate crisis, the pandemic and Agenda 2030. We believe that this is more than enough as a starting point for artists with the freedom to interpret, shape and contribute.
The WALLSTREET festival is organized by the independent politically neutral non-profit organization “Sveriges Konst & Arkitekturförening” (Sweden Art & Architecture Association) which is based in Stockholm. The purpose of the association is to conduct activities that strengthen and support a positive urban and community development of public places outdoors. The focus is about participation, co-creation, art, culture and architecture as resources for increased pace of innovation and sustainability.
The association’s members consist of an association of municipalities in the Stockholm region as well as some interest organizations.
WALLSTREET is a global concept for art exhibitions in our common urban spaces. WALLSTREET is created to be applied in different places around the world.
WALLSTREET festival is run by an independent politically neutral non-profit organization. WALLSTREET offers a platform for initiated political dialogue about the power of art and architecture – with the support of research and researchers. All parties for a common cause.
Participating municipalities must follow the principle of arm’s length distance. Politicians do not participate in either the project group or the art advisory board, or in the board of the non-profit association that is the platform for the project. The politicians decided only on the financial resources to finance the project.
Yes, and it is briefly about the importance of artistic quality and artistic freedom. The main target group for the art is residents and visitors in Sweden. The art can be both temporary and permanent. All production of art must, as a starting point, be preceded by a sketching process.
Art can interact with what has already been built, with what is to be built, or with what is to be demolished and disappear. Art can be a response to a deficiency, or an input or response to a development. The art can be new production or art that is renewed by being placed in a new context or renovated.
Art can be a source of deep, subjective insights that create a commitment – participation in society and democracy. Art can add something new, engage, challenge and deeply touch our souls. Art can create curiosity, rapture, arouse new thoughts and feelings.
Yes. All partners are encouraged to follow the environmental policy to the greatest possible extent. The policy is not a requirement.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
Neighborhood means all those who live and work in a specific geographical area. Neighborhood includes both residential individuals and the local businesses and organizations located in the area. The local anchoring and contact with those who live and work on the site is of great importance for sustainable development.
Those who live and work in a place knows it the best. No outside planner can surpass the locally based knowledge of which places and streets feel unsafe, ugly, dead, dark or boring. WALLSTREET festival collaborates where possible with local associations and networks, where neighbors can act as ambassadors for their own living area.
Are you a citizen who is interested in knowing more about the art in your home area and wants to participate in the festival? We suggest you contact your local art association or other local organization that has a coordinating function in your neighborhood. WALLSTREET festival collaborates with local associations as a coordinator in matters concerning the artistic stories of the place.
Neighbors can, for example: Identify good places for art in their own immediate area; Contribute to the artistic story created for the place; Co-finance art (mainly applies to local businesses); Participate in open conversations with the artist – artist talks.
WALLSTREET is about outdoor public art – artistic stories in our “common living rooms”. The festival focuses on visual arts: sculpture, temporary architecture, light installations, murals – in all sorts of different sizes. Miniatures as well as big works of art. WALLSTREET festival has a clear environmental thinking and prioritizes art materials and processes that have little or no impact on nature.
We do not know yet. Art ends up where the festival’s participating partners decide that they want to invest in art, regardless of whether it concerns the municipality or the private business community. The process of choosing places will continue until in the spring of 2022 and will be reported on this website.
What you as a resident can do is contact your local art association. How does your neighborhood work with artistic stories? We encourage neighborhoods to get together and talk about their own place. What stories characterize the place? How do the place and its stories affect us? How can it get better?
Yes, there is an artistic advisory board, consisting of people from participating municipalities responsible for public art, and some external representatives with artistic competence. The advisory board give support and advice in matters concerning the artistic process. The board strengthens the artist’s professional role and position. The purpose of the board is also project coordination and learning through information exchange and knowledge sharing.
Yes, and it is briefly about the importance of artistic quality and artistic freedom. The main target group for the art is residents and visitors in Sweden. The art can be both temporary and permanent. All production of art must, as a starting point, be preceded by a sketching process.
Art can interact with what has already been built, with what is to be built, or with what is to be demolished and disappear. Art can be a response to a deficiency, or an input or response to a development. The art can be new production or art that is renewed by being placed in a new context or renovated.
Art can be a source of deep, subjective insights that create a commitment – participation in society and democracy. Art can add something new, engage, challenge and deeply touch our souls. Art can create curiosity, rapture, arouse new thoughts and feelings.
WALLSTREET festival welcomes professional artists to apply for the Open Call – WALLSTREET CALLING. The festival has a number of art consultants who are responsible for curating the art in different places.
WALLSTREET work with different types of partners. The public sector (municipalities) and private sector (mostly property developers) are the most common one.
Participating municipalities use existing established municipal processes for the production of art where arm’s length distance applies (no politicians are allowed to be involved) and all art production is led by people with artistic competence.
Private business uses the art consultants who are connected to the festival, and who act as a link between private partners and the artist. Most art productions in the private sector follow a given process.
WALLSTREET festival wants to involve neighbors at the place where there will be art as much as possible (if there are any people living on the site, that is).
Connecting people and place through the power of public art.
A movement for happier communities and a kinder world.
Impacting humanity to become more aware.