Free Art Friday Newquay

Free Art Friday is not an original concept; there are many artists across the world making art and leaving it out on the street.
We first came across it through My Dog Sighs, a uk artist who shared our love of street art & a reluctance (scaredy-catness?) to commit graffiti.
There is even a group as close to us as Truro, but we thought that for our local arts festival, Art8 2014, we would like to bring FAF to Newquay... Art8 seemed like a highly appropriate tie-in, especially with the change to a long weekend which made the first day of the festival a Friday...

‘Anyone & everyone
is free to participate’

Anyone and everyone is free to participate, and we take no curatorial privilege, merely the desire to promote the activity and the administration of the relevant pages on the social media. From this position we can perhaps advise as to the Do’s and Don’t’s of Free Art Friday.
...But do we really want to be telling Artists what to do?
Happily, there are no rules with regard to the actual artwork -some put out canvas, others use textiles, cardboard, or materials found on the street- but we can outline the procedures established by other FAF groups in documenting Free Art Friday.
The artist...
...is able to create work that is not subject to the usual commercial considerations; their work may be in keeping with their gallery work or a complete contrast; it could voice an idea or experiment with a medium that would not be possible when selling their art;
they can be as flippant or as serious as they like, engaging the viewer on whatever levels they see fit; visually, politically, comicly...

The art
Free art on the street adds an element of surprise! By its very existence the work is making a statement that art can be a part of the everyday, that we can do things, make things, change things; we can cheer people up and/or we can make them question everything.
Picture
A Dozen Red Roses: Free Art Friday in Mawgan Porth, February 14th 2015

Taking the art...
...is problematic, “almost an act of situationist art itself.” Once taken, is the work coveted or thrown away? How do people respond when faced with something that is completely free?

‘How do people respond
when faced with something that
is completely free?’

This is a version of the instructions that we came up with for Art8 2014 (take 'em or leave 'em!). When you do it, you could set up your own chapter with its own facebook page etc. and longterm or more specific hashtags #Art8NQY2014?

Create some art.
Label it “www.facebook.com/FreeArtFridayNewquay” and #FAFNQY and place it on the street. The label can contain details of your own website etc, but etiquette dictates that prominence is given to Free Art Friday.
Post a picture of your work on the facebook page, instagram etc #FAFNQY #FreeArtFriday, possibly with a clue to its whereabouts.

Anyone who finds the art is then free to take it home.
All we ask is that they also post on facebook, instagram etc with an appropriate degree of gratitude & appreciation.
Picture
A Dozen Red Noses. Free Art Friday for Comic Relief, 2015.

A Year of Free Art Fridays by kARANdAVE

Find Free Art Friday Newquay on Facebook