Kapunda’s Lucas Street mural has been named one of the best public art experiences in Australia after being shortlisted for the 2020 Australian Street Art Awards’ Best External Mural.
Mural artist Danny Menzel and his band of dedicated volunteers from the Kapunda Mural Town Project will be checking if their diaries are clear for the awards ceremony on March 2 on the Sunshine Coast where the winners will be announced.
Awards director Liz Rivers highlights just how important the awards are in showcasing towns like Kapunda to a national audience. “Australia has a long history of creating sculptures, monuments and other street art that is captivating to visitors. However, until two years ago there was no way of rewarding towns and precincts that created these art-related experiences for visitors. The Australian Street Art Awards has remedied that shortcoming,” she said.
The left half of the mural is a recreation of an 1871 photograph of store owner Robert Brewster and his family alongside a local family enjoying a car ride circa 1910, but it was the right-hand half of the mural that really impressed the judges.
“We love that this section is an artistic reproduction of the Lord Palmerston Hotel and J. Harden Confectionery building in the exact location where those businesses once stood, even though the original building was demolished in 1968,” the judges said.
The Kapunda Mural Town project also received accolades at the Light Regional Council’s Australia Day awards this year, taking out Community Project of the Year.
- taken from Kapunda Business Alliance Newsletter, February 2021
