If the walls of Newcastle’s CBD could talk, what would they say? Having borne witness to an ever-evolving landscape that has shape-shifted from penal colony, to coal mining capital, to the revitalised regional gem of today- they sure have seen it all.
Someone else who’s seen it all, at least when it comes to managing public art projects, is Jacinta Fintan, owner and manager of Newcastle public art agency The Wall Station. Working as a go-between for artists and organisations has become something of a forte for Jacinta throughout her career. This, along with a penchant for following her curiosity, sees her currently wearing several professional hats.
Aside from her role at The Wall Station, Jacinta is also a co-founder of Mural in A Box, an initiative providing resource kits for teachers and students to install murals in schools. Additionally, she’s the owner and founder of the Stencil Art Prize, which celebrated the work of international stencil artists from 2009 to 2021. Oh… and let’s not forget published author as well. In June 2021 Jacinta’s first book CUT: 10 years of the Stencil Art Prize was released at Newcastle Library.
Prior to starting The Wall Station and moving back to her hometown of Newcastle, Jacinta spent more than two decades living in Sydney. During that time, she worked in a variety of senior marketing and communications positions with cultural/community organisations, all of which laid the foundation for her business today.
“All the jobs I’ve had are about connecting with people and creating something that makes the community and life a bit more interesting or beautiful. That’s how I’ve ended up here: working with artists, working with community, working with businesses,” remarks Jacinta.
These days Jacinta’s work at The Wall Station largely revolves around the project management of public art installations including murals, street art festivals and urban activations. Bringing these projects into the public sphere can involve everything from seeking out tenders and commissions, to applying for grants, organising risk assessments and of course, a lot of liaising with artists and community groups/organisations. However, the thing that excites Jacinta most is looking for opportunities to develop creative projects with a diverse range of artists.
“All the jobs I’ve had are about connecting with people and creating something that makes the community and life a bit more interesting or beautiful.”
“As a curator, I want to have variety. You don’t want to just have the same sorts of artworks. You want to try and involve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, artists of different ages and styles and emerging artists as well,” says Jacinta.
One such project likely to tick these boxes is Small Walls, a graffiti prevention program managed by The Wall Station that sits under the City of Newcastle’s Special Business Rates Program. Launching in April 2022, Small Walls aims to help businesses that are getting heavily tagged by covering the graffiti with murals installed by local artists.
Small Walls grants will be available for businesses located in a nominated area that includes Newcastle CBD, the West End and a portion of Darby Street. Businesses will benefit from Small Walls by having graffiti removed from their premises and beautified by murals at zero cost to them.
“As a curator, I want to have variety. You don’t want to just have the same sorts of artworks. You want to try and involve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, artists of different ages and styles and emerging artists as well.”
It’s also expected that involvement with the program will reduce the likelihood of businesses being vandalised again in the future. Studies show that murals are less likely to attract tagging because graffiti is harder to decipher on murals and those carrying out the graffiti are more likely to respect, and therefore leave alone the artwork of mural artists.
If the statistics are anything to go by, it looks as though there’ll be plenty of local businesses eager to participate in the program. According to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) 2016 findings, Newcastle is ranked sixth in the top 10 local government areas for graffiti in NSW, with Lake Macquarie even higher up the ladder in second place.
Working with local and emerging artists will be a key area of focus for Small Walls as Jacinta explains, “We really want to work with artists who may not have done a big wall before. You need experience going from small scale to large scale, so it’s an opportunity for artists to work on a smaller size wall before they go up.”
Small Walls grants will be available for businesses located in a nominated area that includes Newcastle CBD, the West End and a portion of Darby Street. Businesses will benefit from Small Walls by having graffiti removed from their premises and beautified by murals at zero cost to them.
Additionally, Jacinta would really like to support female identifying artists break into the industry through Small Walls.
“The street art industry can be really male dominated because traditionally guys run around tagging trains with spray cans and textas and that’s not an activity that typically girls want to do at night. Some do, but not a lot… and so there’s just a boys’ club. So I’m really interested in bringing in female identifying artists to give them a leg up,” says Jacinta.
Additionally, Jacinta hopes to build some bridges between the graph community and the Small Walls program so that graffiti artists can get involved.
“I’ll approach some artists I know who are credible and work in both worlds and have a discussion about how they might collaborate… so that the graph artist isn’t coming in cold, but they’re working with someone they trust,” explains Jacinta.
In describing what murals and street art bring to a local community, Jacinta says, “They beautify the local environment, create a sense of place and they can make areas feel safer. I think they enrich our daily life.”
They beautify the local environment, create a sense of place and they can make areas feel safer. I think they enrich our daily life.
Notable Newcastle murals that The Wall Station has recently been involved with include the Australian flora and fauna artworks at Marketown Shopping Centre by local artist, Jordan Lucky, along with the coastal themed wall at The Soul Kollective in Merewether that was done by Jacinta’s husband Nick Fintan.
Jacinta also speaks particularly fondly of a mural in Waratah carried out by Sydney-based street artist Christina Huynh.
“We did a wall at the back of the Hunter Multicultural Communities with the word ‘diversity’. It has this golden quality. It features a bird and wheat, and the artist used a poem that talks about diversity. I love the simplicity of that mural… I really adore that one,” says Jacinta.
Aside from the aesthetic qualities that murals bring to a space, Jacinta is just as interested in the messages and conversations they can project into a community. Referencing the ‘diversity’ wall again, Jacinta elaborates further: “If you are a minority and you go into a space and there’s a huge wall there with a supportive message about acceptance and diversity or something that represents that, you feel welcome and you feel safer. It helps to educate, and it helps to set the tone.”
So, although we’ll never know what the walls of Newcastle would say if they could talk, here’s hoping in the future they continue to speak volumes through the creation of many more murals and public art installations.
Words: Emily McGrorey | Photography: Zoë Lonergan and supplied by Jacinta
As seen in Swell Issue 13.
