Rain drops trickle down the side of the large square powerbox sitting on the outskirts of the Taylors Hill Esplanade Park. In the distance, a dog runs off-leash, its owner trailing behind. The orange hues of the metal structure are covered in a glistening sheen, making the plants painted along its metal surface appear alive.  

The orange hues were a deliberate choice by the artist responsible for putting them there. Artist Angharad Neal-Willis, 27, wanted to choose colours for her piece Growing Together that contrasted with the area. 

“They’re colours we don’t typically see in a built environment for a community. So, [it was] good to bring some of that into our shared spaces,” she tells upstart. 

Neal-Willis is a Melbourne based artist who has been working as a freelancer since 2019. In 2021 she took part in the Temporary Public Art Projects designed by the Melton Council: to try and bring more colour and creativity into the community. 

Public art is often used to express meaning to onlookers and to connect people with a place on a deeper level.  Public art, from Banksy’s artwork Mild Mild West, one of his earliest works still intact to this day, to the colourful buildings of Tirana, Albania’s capital, can make someone stop, look, and feel.  

Tirana’s painted buildings are a perfect example of how something can go from meaning nothing to being everything. The former mayor of Tirana Edi Rama changed the path of Albania in 2000 after the launch of a beautification program which saw the delapidated frontages of the city’s socialist buldings painted in bright swathes of colour. The aim was to turn the grey post-communist regime city of Tirana into a place his people could be proud of.

After, Rama, noticed a change in his city. His people started to take pride in where they live, ultimately leading to crime dropping too. 

“When colours came out everywhere, a mood of change started transforming the spirit of the people,” he said in a TED Talk, 11 years after the beautification program. 

 “People started to drop less litter in the streets. They started to pay taxes. They started to feel something they’d forgotten … Beauty was giving people a feeling of being protected. This was not a misplaced feeling. Crime did fall.”  

“Compromise in colours is grey. We have enough grey to last us a lifetime,” Rama said.  

Communites can forge strong attachments with public art, too. In 1984 in the beachy city of Sydney, NSW the mural Peace, Justice and Unity was created for the Pilgrim House in the CBD, through workshops with artists David Humphries, Rodney Monk and Ashley Taylor from the Public Art Squad.  Peace, Justice and Unity spans over three panels on the Pilgrim House building.

The creation of Peace, Justice and Unity brought many communities together. Funding came from all over the city. Citizens of Sydney were involved in the design process. In the final product, the first section features a white dove in mid-flight, the second shows a bound pair of hands with a third reaching down to break the ropes with a feather. The final has black and white hands reaching out to each other to meet in the middle, similar to that of Michaelangelo’s The Creation of Adam.   

When the building was refurbished in 2001, the mural was painted over. This triggered a campaign from the Public Art Squad to have the piece returned. Through donations and community support, they were able to fund the reinstallation. The original artist team of Humphries, Monk and Taylor put the piece back up in 2003, 20 years after its creation.  

Public art, like murals, are not only good for community connection, but they also have been proven to help make areas safer. A 2021 study by Asphalt Art Safety found that after installing murals in five different locations, there was a 50 percent decrease in the crashes involving pedestrians and other vulnerable road users. 

The City of Darebin, is located within Melbourne’s inner north and has a population of approximately 140 thousand. The council area has a multitude of artworks. 

In 2021 its council applied for grants to deliver a range of projects as part of the Victorian Government’s Reservoir Revitalisation Program,which includes a dedicated mural program. Council member Marc Chung, leader of the Creative Culture and Economic Development for Darebin, tells upstart that the project was undertaken to combat two main issues impacting the area: reducing graffiti and increasing the public’s sense of safety in the Reservoir Activity Centre.  

Chung says the impact of murals on crime in Australia is still inconclusive, yet he has noticed change.

“Whilst the impact of murals on reported criminal activity is unclear, what we have observed is a decrease in instances of tagging and graffiti on the walls that host murals, which in turn helps to improve the community’s perception of safety,” he says.  

Chung believes that it would be beneficial if more murals were commissioned throughout Victoria. 

“Murals should not only be commissioned by Council, [but] businesses and private property owners should also get on board where possible,” he says.  

Through commissioning these works, communities are also able to help support the local artists and give them a canvas to share their work with the community.  

“Other great reasons to commission murals include the fact that these works also support local artists and the creative industries in general.”   

While large-scale artworks are often embraced by communities, some still bring controversy. In May a local business in the Melbourne inner city suburb of Fitzroy commissioned an artist to paint the side of their building. The finished art piece depicted a woman bound and gagged. In a matter of days, the mayor received over a thousand emails in complaint.  

Many believed the piece was degrading and specifically done to create controversy. The artist, a Los Angelas based street artist, Lauren YS defended their work. 

“Anyone imposing negative narratives onto it is incorrectly assuming its meaning,” they said in a statement in response. “It is about empowerment and queer selfhood.”  

To avoid such an uproar, most councils try to include the community in the design process before an artwork is done. Angharad Neal-Willis says that when she works on murals, that will be in shared public spaces, the community will have a say in the work through a community consultation process.  

“Especially if it’s a client, like a council project,” she says. “It’s almost a requirement now for the community to have some kind of say or an opportunity to give feedback or contribute ideas for the design.” 

Consultation creates more engagement within the community, investing them in creating a place people are proud of.  

“I think for council projects it’s important to have the community involved because it’s for them,” she says. “I think for something that’s in the public space that, yes, I’ve much preferred getting the community involved because it just leads [to] greater acceptance of the murals because people have backstory and feel more a part of it.”