Without Walls - The Vision

This project has been developed by five of the country’s most strategically significant street arts festivals with the aim of helping to develop and strengthen the landscape of outdoor performance in the UK. The festivals (X.trax Manchester, Greenwich & Docklands International Festival, Streets of Brighton, Hat Fair Winchester and Stockton International Riverside Festival) all shared a commitment to working collaboratively to achieve a greater degree of sustainability for their respective festivals and the sector in general.

The Without Walls consortium has been successful in securing funding to continue the programme for a second year from Arts Council England and have expanded to include the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, The Brighton Festival and The Bristol Do. The grant will be used throughout 2008 to develop imaginative commissions and programmes of work at major festivals in the UK. Without Walls will also work with other strategic partners to strengthen the increasingly confident world of outdoor performance.

By coming together to present and develop work from a new and emerging generation of street artists, the festivals aim to create a more secure environment within which new work can flourish and new audiences can be developed. At the same time the festivals seek to raise the profile of the wider street arts sector in the UK by curating a platform of exceptional new work which will be presented at each of the festivals.

‘This is a ground-breaking opportunity for UK street arts. Without Walls has been working to raise the standards and quality of street performance in this country, and this investment will support pioneering new work, emerging artists and initiate a new era of creative growth.’
Bradley Hemmings, Without Walls Chair.