Roeselare (BE): regional pionier in street art joins Street Art Cities partnership program.
The city of Roeselare is located in the heart of West Flanders (one of 10 provinces in Belgium), next to the E403 between Kortrijk and Bruges. Sometimes called the Manchester of Belgium and has a little port with some important industrial activity near the canal. With an area of just under 60 square kilometers and about 64,000 inhabitants, it is a relatively small city and hometown of the famous Flemish poet Alfred Rodenbach and his namesake the Rodenbach brewery, a must-visit for beer lovers. In cycle crazy Belgium “Koers” is museum dedicated to the popular cycling sport. But what people tend to forget is that Roeselare has been investing in street art for almost 10 years now.
Day One Festival
In may 2014 the “Day One Festival” landed in Roeselare with a stellar line-up: a mix of international and local talents filled the streets, with names like Zed1 (IT), Jana & JS (DE), Daleast (CN), David Walker (UK), Smates, Bué the Warrior, Jaune, Dennis Meyers to name just a few, it was one of the first street art festival of its kind in the region. Some of the works have disappeared over time, but this marked an uprise of street art in other cities like Kortrijk, Torhout, Brugge and off course the pivotal Crystal Ship festival in Ostend. Over the course of years the focus lies more on local artists and themes like cycling and Rodenbach.
Best street art in Flanders
Back in 2019 the listeners of Radio 1 program ‘Culture Club’ could submit their favorite street art in Flanders and David Walker’s work in Roeselare was an obvious public favorite and was eventually awarded the title of “Best Street Art in Flanders & Brussels”. The colorful portrait of a sleeping woman is like a gardian angel watching the vibrant square.
“This recognition shows that Roeselare has its place in the growing number of Street Art Cities around and although we don’t like to compete with large scale festivals like the Crystal Ship, we’d like to focus on our own identity and talents. “: says Jolien Vergote of the Tourist Departement. Matthijs Samyn, alderman of Tourism, continues on the same level: “We’re very proud of the pioneering role we play in street art in our region and off cours with the whole David Walker triumph. During the challenging pandemic it became clear that we had to do something with it as our our street art flyers became very popular. So joining the international Street Art Cities platform was a no-brainer! We’re looking forward to work together and are happy to be part of the biggest street art platform in the world. It gives us the necessary digital tools we need in the very active and always changing street art.”
Local hunter
Nik Brouckaert is the local Street Art Cities hunter and has been pushing street art for a while now: “ It al started with me looking for an artist to paint my little house, in Siegfried Vynck Ifound the perfect match and from then on I was on the look-out for more. So I joined Street Art Cities to promote my city and the beautiful artworks I find. Some of the early works of Jaune I find very interesting because they are on slightly bigger scale that we know his work now, so that’s something you should certainly check out.
10th Belgian City
“Roeselare is city #10 that joins our official partnership program, they follow the examples of cities like Hasselt, Leuven, Mons, Antwerp and Ghent and show that cities are looking for ways to grasp street art in their streets.”: shares Tim, co-founder of Street Art Cities. “The pandemic has pushed the reset button for tourist departments and city marketeers all over the world, and the continued emergence of urban art even during Covid has shown the potential value for touism industry. There’s a new breed of travellers, urban explorers swing from city to city to catch all the beautiful murals and they are the new catalyst for local economy. These city swingers also need to eat, sleap and drink and tend to have an interest in other things than street art too and often look for museums and cool hotspots to recharge their batteries while hunting. That’s exactly the reason why we developed our special program to help cities with digital mapping but also understand the dynamics that this new movement brings to town. At the moment we’re unboarding new partners s we are talking to some large metropolisses in Europe and we’re looking across the oceans to the United States and Australia.” : continues Tim.
Roeselare is now available in the free Street Art Cities app, available in both appstores. Just scrolls through the partner cities on top of the city selector.
Are you interested to learn more on how your city can join us and enjoy our knowlegde, check our info page and ask for some more info.
