The UKs largest-ever street art project has been rolled out across major cities in a bid to bring together the countrys burgeoning creative industries. The project, Get It Right From A Genuine Site, aims to use street art to promote the local talent involved in the creative industries and encourage digital consumers to legally download their content to support the UKs creative economy. The film, television, music, publishing, sports, gaming and photography industries are all behind the campaign.
Five cities − Birmingham, Cardiff, Liverpool, Bournemouth and Edinburgh − will participate in the street art project over the next six weeks. Birmingham was chosen to launch the event, with local graffiti artist Chu involved in an 18-metre high spray-painted artwork on the side of the Custard Factory building.
The mural showcases local Birmingham talent, including poet and writer Benjamin Zephaniah, musician Mike Skinner of The Streets and actress Felicity Jones, who was Oscar-nominated for her role in the Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory Of Everything this year.
Its a thorough celebration of not only the people [in the mural] but the city itself, said Chu.
Its quite an honour to be painting this building to be honest. Were all over the moon with it, so its going to be received well, he added.
Britains creative industries were worth £79.6bn ($118bn, €103.6bn) in 2013 and accounted for 5% of the UK economy, according to 2015 estimates.
The creative industry in the United Kingdom contributes more than £8m an hour to the economy of the country and employs more than 2.8m people. This is the first time that all the sectors of the industry have got together to present a joined-up face to the public, said Marianne Grant, senior vice president of the Motion Picture Association (MPA).
Global Street Art, the UKs largest urban art platform, will curate the work in all five cities. Since 2012, Global Street Art has organised more than 1,000 legal street art murals in London.
