Ipswich Public Art Program
A city-wide mural program that turned Ipswich’s walls into a public gallery — run as a sub-program of Brisbane Street Art Festival, with workshops, artist panels and a street party built around it.
The brief
Ipswich didn’t want decoration on a few walls. The brief was to shift how residents saw their own city centre — using art to make the public realm feel contemporary, cared for and worth spending time in, in a city often defined by what it used to be.
Approach
We delivered it as a sub-program of Brisbane Street Art Festival, which meant Ipswich got the festival’s full national artist network rather than whoever happened to be local and available. Seven artists were matched to large walls across the city, and we handled the curation, Council and landowner approvals, access and production. Around the murals we ran hands-on workshops in aerosol, stencil and brushwork, and closed the program with The Switch Up Street Party — artist panels, live Scribble Slam battles, local DJs and bands.
Outcome
Seven large-format murals that are still on Ipswich’s walls, made by artists including Fintan Magee, Gus Eagleton and Rachael Sarra. The program reached far beyond the people who happened to walk past a wall — the workshops and street party gave residents a way into the work rather than just a view of it.