Open/Close Stobswell Street Art Trail
- Rebecca Reid
- Jul 7, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 12, 2018
Adding to Dundee’s wealth of street art and creative projects, Open/Close Stobswell is an immersive street art trail around the north-eastern part of the city. The street art trail is all about seeing the city in a new way by taking the familiar and the everyday and transforming it into something new and inspiring.
Open/Close is a new and exciting part of the texture and fabric of Dundee, taking the nooks, crannies and quaint little lanes that are a part of the city’s character and injecting them with life and vibrancy. It’s also about people— designing spaces and the human interactions within those spaces. The second in a series of street art trails, Open/Close Dundee now comprises 38 unique artworks around the city centre and in Stobswell.
The street art trail encourages people to explore new parts of Dundee where they might not have been before, unifying and reconnecting the city centre with Stobswell through design and collaboration. And it's another reason why we should take pride in our creative little city.
‘Open/Close is bringing art to the doorways and walls of Stobswell, encouraging you to explore and discover all that is great in the area.’
The Open/Close Stobswell street art trail consists of 20 shutters and doors painted by 20 local artists. The trail will take approximately an hour and a half (but closer to two if you’re dawdling trying to get photographs!). You can buy the new Stobswell maps in DCA, The Macmanus Galleries and The Bach for £1, or you can use the interactive map on the Open/Close website which can be opened on the Google Maps app.
Highlighting famous landmarks in Stobswell such as Morgan Academy and Baxter Park, the street art trail adds to the area’s rich, cultural heritage. Stobswell was originally home to many jute mills and factories, and Open/Close nods to this part of Dundee’s famous epithet, whilst highlighting its new design-driven identity.
The Open/Close movie was screened at DCA in May as part of Dundee Design Month, showing a variety of perspectives from creatives who work and play in the city. It explores the impact and the importance of the Open/Close project, whilst showing a unique insight into the Stobswell area. The owners of the shop fronts and shutter doors that have been painted are also featured in the film, presenting a unique glimpse into their everyday lives.
Overall, the Open/Close movie captures the energy and the excitement of the project perfectly, showcasing the ability of design to connect people and bring them together.
Another Dundee street art project in the works is Waste of Space. In response to a local vote for Dundee Decides, artists are currently being chosen to paint 17 bins in the West End. The project aims to strengthen the identity of the Perth Road shopping area whilst connecting it to other parts of the city which encompass the arts and creative scene in Dundee. Within a few months, the Eurobins will hopefully be transformed into lively and immersive pieces of street art, providing a unique setting for the variety of independent retailers in the area.
Exciting, dynamic, colourful and vibrant, creative projects such as Open/Close are helping to regenerate the city by bringing its open and closed spaces to life.
Interested in other Open/Close projects? Check out my blog post on the Open/Close City Centre Street Art Trail or head over to the Urban Dundee archives for more things to do in Dundee.
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