The Art Effect: How a Festival Saved a City

A passion project to bring colour, art and life to the streets of Wollongong that grew into Australia’s largest and longest-running street-art festival has helped transform Wollongong’s identity and economy.

The festival, Wonderwalls, brings the opportunity to see huge-scale wall art created in real time.

Beyond the artworks, Wonderwalls’ most significant claim to fame might just be its role in the cultural comeback of a city; as a driving force in the revitalisation of Wollongong, an industrial port city with a population of more than 300,000, 90 minutes south of Sydney.

Wollongong’s post-settlement history is forged in industry.

The region’s rich coal deposits, secure port access, and established refineries and smelters led to the introduction of steel production at nearby Port Kembla in 1927.

As production and exports grew, so did the city—eventually becoming Australia’s largest centre of heavy industry. By 1981, steel produced in Wollongong and Port Kembla supplied up to 95 per cent of the Australian market, and more than 70 per cent of local employment was directly or indirectly tied to the industry.

End of an era

But globalisation, overproduction and restructuring meant employment in the industry fell from 23,000 in 1981 to 14,000 in 1983 (today employment is around 3000).

Over this two-year period, around one in three regional workers became unemployed, 25 per cent of locals were living below the poverty line and welfare receipts increased by 235 per cent.

Further economic downturns followed including the early 1990s recession and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. The ‘steel city’ was devastated.

Chronic long-term unemployment numbers only told part of the story.

Domestic violence, alcohol and drug addiction, marriage breakdown and mental health issues all increased over this period. Calls to Lifeline were significantly higher within the region than elsewhere.

With the community on its knees, the identity of the city suffered.

The public perception was that it was a place without hope or opportunities. Even as the University of Wollongong grew as a major employer, filling some of the employment gap left by the steel industry, the city struggled to retain students beyond graduation.

There just weren’t any compelling reasons for them to stay.

Wollongong’s challenges were clear. The council was working to redefine its identity and evolve beyond its industrial roots.

Its aim was to reverse negative market perceptions, attract new industries, and retain residents by offering jobs and culture.

City planning endeavours were well under way, but renovations and infrastructure upgrades take time and cause disruption.

The community needed something immediate—something positive to signal change in the CBD, which had become a constant, soulless reminder of the city’s struggles.

▲ Wonderwall has helped the city evolve from its industrial roots.

As a teenager growing up in Wollongong in the 1990s, Simon Grant understood the challenges facing the city.

A talented graffiti artist and natural negotiator, Grant was constantly seeking spaces to fill with colour and creativity.

“We lived in a city where we wanted to see the streets be reinvigorated. I was the guy that walked into the shop and talked the owner into letting me and my friends paint the side of the wall,” he says.

 In 2008, Grant’s gift for the gab and passion for street art led to the formation of Verb Syndicate—a creative agency and ever-expanding network of street artists which became part of the Hoyne family in 2022.

Occupying a small, shared, gallery space, Verb Syndicate became an incubator for street art and culture. Eventually, through many connections and conversations, in 2012 the idea for a Wollongong street art festival started to take shape.

The birth of a festival

“We had a bunch of artists that were looking for somewhere to paint. We were just going to paint a few walls. And then it was like, ‘Oh, well, we should make a flyer,’” says Grant.

The Wonderwalls Festival was born.

Fuelled by an ambition to breathe new life into the city, Grant secured 10 walls across the CBD. Ten artists were provided with paint and allowed the creative freedom to showcase their skills.

Heavyweight artists such as Rone, Meggs and Numskull matched their talents to the fabric of the city, using concrete as a canvas to stop pedestrians in their tracks and, hopefully, awaken the community’s dormant sense of civic pride.

The impact of Wonderwalls was immediate. The once-lacklustre centre was filled with colour and character, generating a renewed sense of creativity, pride and optimism.

Wollongong was now openly signalling to investors, visitors and the community that it was home to a creative culture; that it was an active, vibrant city where people and ideas could flourish.

▲ The festival has underlined the effect art can have in transforming a city.

The role and value of street art—in culture, in civic expression, in place making, and in the high-brow world of art—has been well documented. Street art gives the community a canvas upon which to voice political unrest while also offering new life to dormant spaces, making street art a potent art form.

Since the inaugural festival in 2012, Wollongong has experienced a significant increase in visitation and inward investment, and an influx of new skills and businesses. The festival has been a powerful catalyst for increased social and economic benefit. Wonderwalls has also grown, now including nearby Port Kembla.

The success of street art as a driver of economic prosperity has been seen in communities across the world.

In the US, Beautify Lincoln was started as a community project to lift the appeal of Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica.

The project’s own research confirmed that the concentration of mural ‘hot spots’ on Lincoln Boulevard increased the street’s average business revenue by 5-10 per cent, with some businesses seeing an increase of up to 50 per cent.

As well as attracting customers for local businesses, street art brings creative tenants to buildings, and unmissable artwork also serves as the ultimate wayfinding device for clients or customers.

For Sue Savage, senior manager of Community, Cultural and Economic Development at Wollongong City Council, Wonderwalls has been a major driver in creating new pockets of discovery within the city. Areas that once seemed out of the way, unsafe or unloved, are now activated spaces for visitation and enterprise.

Collatoral benefits

The growth of the city’s café and small bar culture—65 establishments were added to the city centre between 2014 and 2017—is another testament to the positive influence of Wonderwalls on the character and vibrancy of the city.

Wollongong now attracts new residents and employers seeking an alternative to Sydney, an idea that would have been unthinkable only 10 years earlier.

Wollongong has now left its ‘steel city’ reputation behind. It is now focused on innovation, knowledge services, and education. Its art, music and culture offerings are amplified and enriched by the city’s creative streetscapes.

From unsanctioned works to commissioned pieces, street art is a medium of undeniable influence and significance that can reveal, or redefine, the unique character and appeal of a place.

As Verb Syndicate marks more than a decade helping Wollongong reposition itself on the national stage, Simon Grant and his team are now on a mission to expand Wonderwalls to new cities around Australia and New Zealand.

As councils and communities seek ways to ignite a brighter future, the success of Wonderwalls serves as a leading light as an event that transformed a town with colour and creativity.

This is a summarised extract from The Place Economy by Hoyne, a series of resource books that look at best practice placemaking around the world. Volume 3 is due to launch in June 2023. Find out more about the series here.

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