This paper aims to explore the capacity of Australian silo art from a creative placemaking perspective. The paper also takes up this case as fertile ground for probing into the complexity of creative placemaking.
The case study approach is exploratory, drawing on public documents and media sources to thematically (i.e. qualitatively) analyse the factors, actors and processes that pertain to how Australian silo art can contribute towards empowering communities, activating everyday spaces and, ultimately, making socially connected and resilient places.
Each theme encapsulates a particular interplay: (1) physical space – social place, (2) past – present – future place, (3) bottom-up – top-down energies, (4) residents – tourists, (5) urban – nonurban place and (6) material – digital place.
Rather than proffering conclusions about the current impact of silo art on local communities, the paper illuminates the practical workings of silo art as a potential form of creative placemaking. Additionally, thinking of creative placemaking in terms of ongoing interplays could stimulate and expand knowledge and practice in this domain.
This paper initiates and charts a course for a rigorous and critical investigation into silo art as a substantive cultural and artistic phenomenon and a meaningful chapter in regional arts and creative placemaking in Australia. The interplays distinguished provide an additional basis for probing further into the many layers and overall complexity of creative placemaking.
