Southern Railway’s Salem Division and management of the Coimbatore airport have written to the Coimbatore Corporation to explore the possibility of giving a facelift to their premises through street art.
Explaining the details, Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan said that the Division and airport managements had written to him, evincing interest in street art after the officials’ concerned had a look at at the street art that had come up in the city with the Corporation’s support.
He was speaking at a discussion the Coimbatore Corporation, SM+ART Kovai and Residents’ Awareness Association of Coimbatore, both NGOs, had hosted here on Saturday. The Association’s Secretary R. Raveendran said that the officials from the airport had held discussions with the SM+ART Kovai team to see how the arrival and departure terminals could be decorated with street art-style paintings.
Likewise, the Division officials were also keen on giving a facelift to the façade of the Coimbatore Junction building. Discussions were under way and the details would be finalised very soon. The Corporation along with SM+ART Kovai had painted five buildings with street art, starting with the district library building in Town Hall and a few other buildings on State Bank Road, Arts College Road and near the integrated court complex.
Speaking at the discussion, ST+ART India coordinator Giulia Ambrogi said the organisation’s artists and their local counterparts had chosen street art for the city in such a way that common people could connect to them.
Street art unlike other development project was immediately tangible for the people, who could connect to those easily.
Mr. Vijayakarthikeyan said the Corporation had wanted street art to be simple and take art out of museums and this had been achieved in the paintings done in the city.
Poornima Sukumar, social activist, said that the artists had planned the street art paintings in such a way that they reflected the local culture and flavour.
Participants who spoke at the discussion wanted the Corporation to take steps to protect the art and ensure that bills were not stuck defacing the paintings.
