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Sheffield: Town of Murals

7/5/2019

6 Comments

 
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Sheffield, Tasmania
While many towns may consider street art to be a public nuisance or at best a civic experiment, street art actually saved the town of Sheffield, Tasmania. Sheffield is located about fourteen miles inland of Tasmania’s northwest coast.

Sheffield was a thriving little town while several hydroelectric plants were being built in northwest Tasmania. By the mid-1980s though, the construction had finished, and the town shared in the area’s general decline. The town’s leaders looked for inspiration to the other side of the world, in Canada, in a small town on Vancouver Island called Chemainus.

Also facing an economic decline, Chemainus had begun painting murals on its buildings, which drew visitors and revenue. The citizens of Chemainus credited the murals with saving the town.

Sheffield decided to give murals a try too. In 1986, John Lendis painted the first mural, and Sheffield rebranded itself as the Town of Murals. 
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The first mural painted in Sheffield was Stillness and Warmth by John Lendis
​Sheffield encouraged artists, commissioning and creating murals for the town's buildings.  Many of the murals depict the area’s history and life in the town’s early days. The emphasis on having an enormous outdoor art gallery of more than 100 murals worked, and now Sheffield is a tourist destination.
Any Vacancies? by Julian Bale
The Daffodil Show by Damian Rossiter
Mark Beach-Ross by Julian Bale
Frank Slaters’ Wireless Studio of 1926 by John Lendis
River Trout, finalist at 2004 Mural Fest, by Julian Bale
The Hardest Years by Paul Wood and Mary Clancy
Spirited Horses by John Lendis
The Smithy at Work by John Lendis, assisted by Diane Whiting
Wildlife Theatre by John Eathorne
The town now hosts a yearly International Mural Fest, where nine artists paint works based on one theme. The winning murals are then displayed in Mural Park for the next twelve months, ensuring that returning visitors can see new artwork.

Sheffield offers more information about each mural on a website, and the Visitor Information Center has both a map and a self-guided audio tour.

What a wonderful way to spend a morning—looking at the paintings that saved a town. 
6 Comments
Diane
7/5/2019 04:40:51 am

Thank you for inspiring me to look for murals in my neck of the woods. Love this blog!

Reply
Rose
7/5/2019 04:43:30 am

You’re welcome. Happy to pass along my obsession. Thanks for reading and commenting!

Reply
Ed Reniker
7/5/2019 03:21:07 pm

This reminds me of several German towns with their half-timber homes and businesses decorated with paintings on the outside- often of fairy tales or folks stories but also of local customs and costumes. It is really a great idea. Washington DC has taken to this a good deal and many of the buildings have very interesting murals. Thanks for sharing!

Reply
Rose
7/6/2019 02:44:48 am

I would love to someday see those murals in Germany. Thanks for reading and commenting!

Reply
Bob
7/5/2019 07:05:56 pm

I find these type of murals beautiful and like a painting in a frame to be admired and appreciated. What I hate is the graffiti on the subway trains in New York as well as on billboards etc

Reply
Rose
7/6/2019 03:03:15 am

Agreed. I don’t like the graffiti either. I thought it was interesting that Melbourne clearly differentiated street art from graffiti based on whether the property owner wanted the art to be there. Thanks for reading and commenting!

Reply



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    Rose Ciccarelli is an American writer and editor living in Canberra, Australia.

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