STREET ART
Late March 2025
Dear Fellow Bristolian, friend, cultural supporter, arts facilitator, councillor, journalist, artist, community activist, photographer and all brothers and sisters connected to the unique city of Bristol,
This is a campaign in order to encourage Bristol’s members of Parliament to submit BRISTOL STREET ART to the UK’s National Inventory of Cultural Heritage, a register that recognises unique cultural identities in places of the UK.
HISTORY
Bristol is one of the first UK cities that comes to mind when discussing street art and graffiti art culture, and this has been the way since the early 1980’s when Bristol pioneered the development of this youth culture. From then to the modern day many visiting international artists travel to the UK often with two ambitions, one is to paint in the capital city, and the other is to paint in the spiritual home of the UK scene, Bristol. The consequence being that in small pockets all around the city, glorious, beautiful, energetic and colourful murals grace the walls.
RECENTLY
After decades of organic growth and self-sustainability, recent times have seen a decrease in the cultural movement due to a number of factors, and now, after two generations have enjoyed being surrounded by huge, brightly coloured street paintings in many different parts of the city, it is time to lend support to the culture in order to preserve it for the next generations to enjoy.
Some of the factors that have decreased the dynamic of the art movement in the city include gentrification, urban development, opportunistic commercialism, disjointed council policies between keeping the streets clean and allowing youth culture, and a lack of leadership from Bristol tourism and associated council departments to create and put into action a united vision of what makes Bristol, Bristol, for people visiting, leading to a commercial identity crisis.
By having BRISTOL STREET ART entered onto the UK’s National Inventory of Cultural Heritage, and subsequently included on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, it will influence decision making and policies for the future, meaning BRISTOL STREET ART and graffiti art culture will always be considered.
YOUR SUPPORT
PRESERVING BRISTOL CULTURE FOR GENERATIONS
This message is asking for your support, via your email address on the form below, to gather people in order to support and to secure Bristol Street Art is included on the UK’s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Your influence and support for this campaign could play a crucial role in ensuring that Bristol’s street art heritage is formally recognised as culturally significant.
“What’s happened to the Bearpit is a real case in point.
This was a fascinating patchwork of ever changing colour..,now it’s a sterile area completely devoid of its former vibrancy.” Mr Fennell, Facebook comment
UNESCO
Following the UK’s recent ratification of the UNESCO 2003 Convention ( link) for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, there is an opportunity to have Bristol’s street art in all it’s forms, recognised globally.
As an example of how contemporary culture is recognised, recently techno music was accepted as part of the intangible cultural heritage of Berlin, Germany. (link)
Once Bristol Street Art has been included on the UK’s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage, it is one more simple step to be recognised worldwide by UNESCO.
Bristol Street Art will be included on the UK’s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage through the support and lobbying by our elected members of parliament.
Currently these members of parliament who will be approached with the list of supporting people from the campaign, are:
Bristol Central: Carla Denyer (Green Party)
Bristol East : Kerry McCarthy (Labour)
Bristol North East : Damien Egan (Labour)
Bristol North West : Darren Jones (Labour)
Bristol South : Karin Smyth (Labour)
YOU & BRISTOL
This message is reaching out to you in your capacity as someone who believes in the value of culture in society, and the need for preserving it for future generations to enjoy.
Street art in all it’s forms has been a vital part of Bristol’s cultural identity for over four decades. It’s value as a democratic and accessible form of artistic expression, practised by people from diverse backgrounds and deeply embedded in local communities in Bristol is priceless and unique to the city.
This year, it is not only the 40 year anniversary of the Arnolfini’s seminal exhibition in recognition of graffiti art via their exhibition ‘’dasda” (external link), but also Bristol City Council are currently in the process of preparing their “strategy for art”, making this a timely and key opportunity to put street art heritage recognition onto their agenda.
We strongly believe that the UK’s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage would provide an excellent framework to coordinate, organise, and help street art thrive in Bristol, ensuring that it continues to flourish as a vital part of the city’s cultural landscape.
We are eager to participate and collaborate as residents of Bristol in any consultation and discussion spaces with the community during this process, however, given that locations central to this movemen are disappearing and may soon be irrecoverable, we strongly believe that recognition in the National Inventory is urgent and must be a priority for the city’s local agenda.
Together, we must act this year, in 2025.
We would greatly appreciate your support in advocating for this initiative and would welcome the opportunity to discuss how we can work together. If you have any ideas to help further the campaign, please get intouch on the form below.
IMPORTANT ACTION FROM YOU
Most important at this stage is you signing the form linked here:
Please specify your role/job/interest in this so that the weight of this campaign can be recognised, and action prioritised, by those people who have access to the UK’s National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Westminster.
SIGN THE FORM OF SUPPORT FOR BRISTOL STREET ART INTANGIBLE HERITAGE
(Privacy Notice: all details will only be used for the purpose of this campaign, and once successful, all data and database will be deleted).
Once we have support, the list of supporters will be passed to all of the local Bristol MP’s.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to your response.
This campaign has been put together by:
John Nation – worldwide Graffiti and street art culture pioneer.
Dr. Victoria Rivera Ugarte, community artist and mural facilitator
Robert James Dean, independent cultural facilitator
Sign the petition
We the undersigned, support the submitting Bristol Street Art to the UK’s National Inventory of Intangible Culture,