Sometimes it takes just that one person, with great vision and drive, to put colour in a community and create a positive change for a township. For Nambour, that person was Lorraine Taylor, the brains behind Street Art Nambour and the annual Street Art Festival, celebrating local artists and their art, whilst colouring the town. Each year the presence of Street Art in Nambour grows bigger and bigger with more artists rising to the plate to have a piece of their work displayed in the Sunshine Coast hinterland town. Lorraine has vowed to continue her splash of colour to give Nambour the honour it deserves to make sure Nambour is recognised for the great town it is.
Firstly, can you please tell the Boom community a little about yourself?
“Hello, my name is Lorraine Taylor. I have been a self trained signwriter for over 45 years, and I started my interest in lettering at the early age of 4, with my Dad who was a printer. I am now nearly 70 and have been hand signwriting all my life, and I’m still doing it. I love my trade!”
What inspired you to start colouring the streets of Nambour and launch Street Art Nambour?
“When I moved to Nambour four years ago, from the coastal side of the Sunshine Coast, I noticed it had great bones but ordinary murals, and I was inspired to call up local street artists to help me show the talent that can be achieved by good street artists.
“As a signwriter I had a lot of followers on my Instagram that did great street art, and that was the look I wanted for Nambour.
“The town was suffering from the loss of the Sugar Mill, the hospital had downsized, the Regional Council was downsizing , and the general mood was depressing. I knew good street art (done well) would lift spirits so I set about organising this.
“I decided to involve local schools in this as well. One to show kids there was a career with Street Art, but also to reduce tagging, which thankfully has happened. I was about teaching respect to other artists and we aim at providing free walls to allow kids to exhibit their talents, but tagging is not encouraged.”
You do an event called “Street Art Festival” every year… What can you tell us about the event and what are the proposed dates for this year?
“Each year we have a Festival to celebrate a year of murals achieved, and this year we are expanding to the Nambour Showgrounds for a massive food, wine, beer, music , and ART Festival. It’s going to be held on Sunday 12th of September 2021, and will be a great day.”
Can you tell us about some of the artists who you’ve worked with?
“The artists who stepped up to help us were local legends, David Houghton, David Hardy, Ross Holloway , Sarah Sculley , Carley Cornelisson, Fiona Groom, plus several emerging artists”
Do you have plans to expand into other areas of the coast?
“Our intention is to expand approximately 100kms with Nambour being the Hub. We’d love to incorporate all small towns in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland to develop a Trail of Murals, and this will be our focus now as we believe local tourism will be a feature of travel whilst COVID is a major factor.”
Is there anyway our Boom community can help out with Street Art Nambour? Donations for paints, artists, etc?
"We currently need funding for a mural on the Telstra Building in Nambour and we are putting it out there as we really believe this will be significant for Nambour.
Funding was promised by another group but, sadly they now aren’t helping so we are going public.
The artist we have lined up was a finalist in the Australian Street Art Awards this year and just busting to start. Our target is $25,000 for this 5 story high mural, and this will cover safety equipment, paint and the artists time."
“At this stage we are a not for profit Community Group so all funding is raised by door knocking. The Sunshine Coast Regional Council has now stepped up with sponsorship for 3 years which helps, and we received a Grant from Regional Arts Council for $3000 which paid for 3 murals, but we are basically funded by private donations.
“Anyone who donates is featured on our Street Art Trail Map as a sponsor and this year we distributed 5000 maps all over coast to tourist outlets.
“We are expanding our promotions to incorporate local breweries, artisan foodies, wineries, cafes and hotels in the towns where we will do murals. Already Woombye and Eumundi have joined our team which is great.
“We survive on donations, from the local paint suppliers providing paint, scaffold companies providing safe lift equipment, and any financial donations. We are grateful for anything people can do towards making these projects happen.
“We advertise all murals we do and people can contact us via our social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook, and also via our Website.”
Our winter collection is called ‘Kindness’…
How would you define kindness, or what’s your interpretation of kindness?
“Our theme this year in Nambour is “unique, local people that have formed our town” and kindness is reflected in all of them… I see it as stepping outside your self and embracing your community.
“We are doing murals of approximately 10 of them with their stories attached. The local homeless man, the woman who set up Blue Care, the man who sold raffle tickets for 40 years on a corner street....people like that who were the backbone of this community. We need to celebrate them.”
And lastly, what does it mean to live a big, beautiful life?
“To live a big beautiful life, is to embrace where you live and to contribute to it. It is so rewarding to help add colour to peoples lives “
You can find out more about Street Art Nambour via the following links, and if you are able to donate in any way or maybe even have a spare wall for their artists, send Lorraine a message! Let’s keep filling our streets with colour!!!!
And don’t forget to “LIKE” them on the socials - WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK
SHOP LORRAINE'S BOOM LOOK!!
Top photo ~ Lorraine wears the Metropolitan shirt in Windsor and teams it with the Guru Pants in Sienna Red