the street is our gallery

The small Ural town in Russia named Polevskoy has become an open-air museum. Artists depicted objects of historic significance on the streets of Polevskoy in order to draw attention to local heritage.

Like in other small towns, museums of Polevskoy are a home to amazing heritage that deserves to be cherished and remembered. Some of Polevskoy’s history may very well fit into the world of Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, but most of the objects of cultural and historical significance remain unknown to the local population, even though museum doors are open to the public.

Information on long-gone civilization that existed on here thousands of years ago, abandoned ancient towns, wooden mechanical fortresses, treasure buried by the people who came before, and Bronze Age Itkul idols has been translated into mural format, available to everyone taking a stroll around town.

Created by Spektr art collective from Yekaterinburg, this project is both artistic and educational. Spektr proposes a new approach to public space design, a way to explore local identity by creating murals depicting historical artifacts that are usually hidden inside museums.

Today, the streets of Polevskoy display murals of six historic exhibits, painted by professional artists, each accompanied with a written description. In the future, Spektr plans to add web links to each mural, leading to further reading on the history of each exhibit. This way they hope to make local history more accessible to the people of Polevskoy.

More information about Stenograffia Street Art and Graffiti festival can be found at www.stenograffia.ru or on major social networks.