My work sponsored the ‘One Sydney’ street art event that just passed in Sydney on the weekend. It is an event to support charities, unfortunately, I couldn’t check it out as I had the flu but a few work colleagues turned up and saw the creative output by some big-name Australian street artists. This is the second event Resene Paints has sponsored, this event was a bit smaller than the Surface Festival in Canberra with different aims. I have written about the money needed to get a lot of street art off the ground in the past, but street art can raise some money with auctions. Graffiti can be created for next to nothing but normally doesn’t raise anything other than the ire of the public with a few exceptions. I suppose that is the difference I have pointed out in the past as well, I suppose it depends on your organisational prowess and what you support or appreciate. I suppose I can support some of these bigger aims and money-driven events through work, but when it comes to my own work and where I put my time, the budget is pretty tight. 

It can be difficult for businesses to fork out for sponsorship in the times we are in, I wonder when we will be able to sponsor something else and if the economic climate will change. At the same time, you just have to see where things will go. Supporting a charitable cause is always a good idea and we did it. I was reading earlier how Banksy had made an artwork called ‘Game Changer’ and how it raised a ridiculous amount of money for the NHS, what is great about that charitable act is it didn’t need a lot of fuss and pomp to make. It was never clear how much money it would raise, the cost of execution wasn’t an issue, though you could say it took the whole of Banksy’s career up to that point to make anybody take notice and follow through with the auction. If anyone else had done it, nobody would have cared and it would probably find itself in a dusty corner of lite appreciation. That is the world we live in I suppose, a pecking order no matter where you stand. Even if you were in public housing there is a pecking order somewhere somehow.

I still appreciate the low-brow efforts, and the high-brow efforts but there is something to be said for creating within your means. It is good to see events that raise some money and I hope these acts can make a difference. Although I also hope that even those with nothing but some cheap paint and rollers can make a name for themselves in a money-driven world and find a voice. A voice is priceless.