Street art takes over Boxpark; everyone invited to paint
dubai — Crowds were enthralled by the unique open-air interactive event titled ‘I’m Loving Street Art’ at Dubai’s hip urban outdoor destination Boxpark on Friday.
Over the four weekends from October 19 to November 10, the street art celebration will bring original art displays and workshops for adults and children to Boxpark every Friday and Saturday. About eight outdoor art stations are placed outside the Bianca restaurant for adults and kids to paint their hearts out.
Based on the premise that ‘art is therapy for the soul’, visitors will get a chance to contribute to the art installations by expressing their creativity on the street art walls set up around the destination.
The different types of art walls include mosaic art and canvas painting and art enthusiasts could either watch live painting and graffiti sessions, or paint or draw their own works that they could then take home. An Emirati woman, Rouqaya Saeed, was driving on the Jumeirah Road when she saw plain canvases positioned outdoors next to the road, beckoning adults and kids to paint them.
“I got so excited that me and my husband changed our plan of going to the beach and instead came here to Boxpark just so I could paint a bit. I recently visited Vienna and there was a beautiful scenery I saw there that was stuck in my head, and I am now painting it,” Rouqaya said, as her husband held the colour palette for her.
Indian expat Simon, who was helping his daughters — Mikhaila, 12, and Melinda, 10 — and their friend Gwen, 11, with some doodling, said: “Since the weather was good, we decided to go for a drive
and stopped by Boxpark looking at the art stations. I was amazed to see the talents of my girls.”
“This is a lovely outdoor initiative and we are spending some quality time here.”
Children were seen enjoying the mosaic art wall, sticking coloured papers on the sketches done by the helpers assisting people at the art stations.
Algerian nationals Alaa and Mariam, who recently came to the UAE, were painting a canvas showing the Algerian countryside. “The best part is that they have provided us the best of tools for the artwork and also assistant artists. We can also take our paintings back home with us. This for us is a novel experience and we love it.”