A project to give isle and out of town graffiti artists a safe and legal environment to share their work is taking place at the hoardings for Arlington House and arcade in Margate.
The hoardings make-over is taking place after Margate artist Louis Michel, of Rise Up Residency, secured permission from the property owners.
Louis said it is “a very chilled paint jam with a bunch of local graffiti artists and a couple out of town artists,” adding that more works will be added to the other side of the hoarding early next year.
He said: “The idea behind this project is to provide local graffiti artists a safe legal environment to paint and collaborate with other artists from outside of Thanet.
“There isn’t a brief, artists are encouraged to express themselves and work on their skills.
“The added bonus is that the welcome into Margate is now a much more colourful and enjoyable experience than the dull grey hoardings that existed last week.”
The hoardings include work by Louis and Thanet artists Vince Pugh alongside around 10 others.
Rise Up Residency has also recently worked with Scottish artist KMG on a mural titled The Ocean Wolf and the Selkie on Retort House in Broadstairs and The Shark Whisperer in Westbrook, with a further Margate project to come.
In previous years the Rise Up scheme has been responsible for murals at Cliftonville Lido and across Margate.
In 2020 the Arlington hoardings were painted with images by Ramsgate Arts Primary pupils to celebrate Black icons, led by artist Ben Connors, working in collaboration with the People Dem Collective.
The Arlington Arcade hoarding also featured a memorable Only Fools and Horses ‘Jolly Boys Outing’ mural.
If people want to be kept in the loop for future projects, follow @riseupresidency_ on Instagram.
I’m glad that art has regenerated Margate. So much better than when we had shops, cafes and other businesses in there.
This latest desecration has widely split opinion as usual.
Something a little more appropriate and reflective of Margate would have been preferable, as in the ”Fools and Horses” depiction. What we now have is total self-indulgence. It does nothing to enhance the area.
This new ”artwork” will soon be festooned with the usual tags and graffiti as has been the case with all the previous freelance efforts. It then ends up as a greater eyesore.
Finally, I wonder how many spray cans were used to create this monstrosity ? Is it water based paint ? We are supposed to be more aware of environmental issues. How much paint and propellant has been released into the atmosphere ? Have all the empty spray cans been recycled or sent to landfill ?
These artists should be given paper and crayons for their art and a FPN for their graffiti.
Artists should be in inverted commas. The council & society used to call them vandals, issued fines & made them clean their peeing up the wall/marking their territory doodlings off under community orders.
Now the council encourage it, call them artists & even some of them like Banksy have become celebrities off their zero talent. Who buys his drivel? Probably the same pretentious idiots who pay millions for Emin’s bed covered in booze, ciggies, used johnnies, vomit, crappy underwear etc. If any of us did it we would be charged with environmental crimes & forced to pay for the environmental department to deal with it, she gets paid over 2.5 million for it because she has a name in the ‘art’ world!
How to make Margate Seafront look an even bigger dump/ghetto than it has for the last 25 years.
In the 1930’s, there were “Slum clearances” in Margate that saw the demolition of some lovely seafront cottages… if only they were doing that today, and clearing REAL slums like this! So much for “art” regenerating the area.
More like degenerating the area.
I watched them doing this the other day and it looks so much better
Better than the shops and cafes?
Specsavers awaits you.
The shops are history sadly. Freshwater has no intention of bringing back retail. My point was that this looks better than it recently looked!
Something definitely needs to be done with this area – it is disgraceful that it has been abandoned for so many years.
But at least this artworks make it look a better.
How? It is a total eyesore. It takes a lot to make Arlington House look even worse. Imagine if you came to Margate on the train & the first thing you see when stepping outside the station is some weird frog thing, an odd sea creature, some doodles & a Turkey, probably will get straight back on the train back home.
Is the Only Fools & Horses mural still there? It wasn’t perfect, but at least it made people smile.
I notice in the first picture, there is a large cat graffiti. When this was painted. This would have been a great time to arrest the artist. For their graffiti across Thanet on road signs, walls etc. They must cost the Council tax payers thousands to get rid of their unsightly doodles.
My word. Out come the dinosaurs!
I think these are good, and perhaps those who criticise could see how well they’d get on trying it- it is a skill and it is art
Get a life people – until this site is (if ever) redeveloped this is a good use of the space.
Real question should be…why is it taking so long to put some new buildings up here
Johnny – art is subjective – I personally think this type of hoarding painting is rubbish, but I do understand others find it appealing. As for your quote ‘out come the dinosaurs’ I find that insulting .
The difference is we don’t call ourselves artists, or have any pretentions our worthless doodles are any good. Also if we did it we would be arrested/fined for vandalism.
But it is art- vandalism is scrawled without permission.
This is with permission and takes skill. I know I couldn’t even attempt to create anything like this, so for such an outpouring of criticism I find that sad.
Turner and the later impressionists were criticised in their day but as you say, art is dependent on each persons opinion
If someone puts their “art” out to the public, then they should be prepared for criticism. I’d never write or publish any books if I couldn’t accept that not everyone will like them.
And why not use the space to nicely paint actual things in Thanet that have some relevance/cultural heritage-Turner, Tudor House, Grotto, Caves etc?
Because they really dislike Margate’s heritage, preferring squalor and filth.
Johnny. I’m struggling to comprehend your conflicting views in your two comments.
Why would you feel the need to refer to everyone who expressed a different opinion from yours about this “art” as dinosaurs and say they need to “get a life”?
When you agree with, “art is dependent on each persons opinion”.
How does permission change the quality of something? If somebody lets their dog crap outside your house, does it make any difference whether you said they can or not, or if a flag is put in it? No, it is still repulsive & brings down the tone of the area.
Why would you want to create stuff like this? It makes the seafront/Margate look terrible.
Again, proper artists could have painted murals of well known local landmarks, so why were these DFL hooligans who apparently force people-including the disabled into the road allowed to come & spray their juvenile, warped rubbish everywhere instead?
Likely that other ‘artists’ will paint over it or deface it in some way – been done before. Freshwater must be very happy for someone else to cover up their dilapidated area which they have left to rot for year. Such a shame that this area is the first that you see when arriving in Margate
Please note,everyone at Rise Up Residency that these “isle and out of town graffiti artists” who want a safe and legal environment to express themselves were illegally parked on the pavement and not at all polite to passers-by as they tried to get by, trying to force people – including disabled people – off the pavement while they were at their work. This is not the way to be part of the community. A far better way to help Margate would be to campaign to get freeholders TDC to force head leaseholder Freshwater Holdings to repopen the shops. Which they’ve let fall into dereliction for more than a decade in contravention of their lease. The Council owns the freehold and should be receiving council tax from thriving businesses in this prime site in a now-thriving seaside resort.
Why doesn’t that surprise me? If Christine was there she would’ve given them a right Tongue-lashing!
All very sad, how that area looks these days. I agree with comments regarding viewing this when leaving Margate station, especially for someone who has never been here before and therefore is not prepared for this kind of welcome! I remember purchasing my first and only Action Man toy, in the bucket and spade plus toy shop on the corner in the early 1970s. What a different world! On another note, Any progress on the window replacement program for leaseholders in the flats? I haven’t been reading anything regarding an update for a while.
Couldnt they find some proper artists to paint the hoardings? Rather than this urban graffiti
Why does graffiti always have to be so aggressive, much better to have seaside related art.
I agree totally. That’s why I liked the Only Fools & Horses mural they had before.
What is pictured here is neither art or graffiti. It is illustration.
However, these practitioners do also do graffiti, including sometimes on walls, fences and windows across Thanet.
Slightly related I note that Southeastern Trains have employed a similar style of illustration to decorate the platform underpass of their Margate station, so any visitors arriving will already have experienced this genre as their first impression of Margate.
That image of a painting of Tracey Emin wearing a cap and pointing her finger is a bit scary.
It’s lifelike.
JUST DEMOLISH THE WHOLE SITE-AND START AGAIN FROM SCRATCH.
Gosh when will the same old ‘faces’ ever stop criticising and moaning about progress, art, difference, anything which doesn’t fit into their small backward looking ideology. What a small life some of your lead.