Nuart launches partnership with Google Arts & Culture to showcase the Stavanger region's street art

How and when did the partnership with Google come about?

— We first discussed the potential for such a project with Google Arts & Culture back in 2016, but it was only with the establishment of Stavanger’s Smart City department in 2018 that we finally found a place to situate it and signed the contract. It’s been a long time coming but the team have been incredibly engaged in tracking down and archiving the works, it’s incredibly exciting to see them all come to life in one place, it’s a real legacy for the city, we’ve had researchers and project managers from France, the UK and the USA all contributing and they’re equally as keen as we are to see it launch, says Nuart founder and curator Martyn Reed.

This carefully curated selection allows residents and visitors to discover the region's urban art offerings through the Google Arts & Culture platform. For the launch of the partnership, we have curated over 300 unique artworks — from the beginning of Nuart’s move to the streets to the present day — and 14 so-called stories chronicling the history and impact of Nuart in the region and street art culture. The stories combine newly written essays with super high-resolution images that invite the viewer to experience the art on the streets of Stavanger in a new way.

To explore the street art of Stavanger and Rogaland, simply go to Google Arts & Culture and search "Nuart", alternatively, you can download the free app and navigate on your phone.

While street art is inherently transient, the partnership with Google Arts & Culture allowed us to reintroduce works to the public that have been painted over or demolished. After two decades of Nuart, this partnership gives the public the tools of a street art archaeologist discovering and excavating gems in the digital realm. With the ability to uncover and make connections between works that are still visible in the city, and those that are long gone, the online visitor is invited to experience the full story of Nuart in a way never before possible, navigating time as well as space.

As Nuart progressively expands into the regions, the project helps us create a common visual language across the whole county, showcasing the consistency of the curatorial platform that is Nuart. As much at home amongst city urbanites, labourers on a building site and farmers in the countryside — the partnership with Google Arts & Culture enables locals as much as people worldwide to connect with the public art history of Stavanger on their preferred digital devices.

The project is designed to document, archive, present and distribute the history of Nuart in Stavanger and the region as visual narratives that include a working timeline. Each work is accompanied by technical details, conceptual frameworks and biographical information about the artist — all with newly developed texts for the project. Another ambition was to establish and generate added value to the historical position of Stavanger and Nuart as a primary site and platform for the global street art movement.