Hip hip hooray! A few weeks ago this website reached quite a milestone as it turned 5 years old! Throughout the years the layout and my goals for this website might have changed, but the topics always remained pretty much the same. Art & culture have always been the red thread through my posts, with an extra focus on street art.  Matter of fact, I wrote my very first blog post in October 2013 about the Brick Lane Graffiti Tour I had just gone on. Over the years I’ve had the great pleasure in meeting some wonderful people through my blog, including these 3 street art bloggers I think you should know.

Three street art bloggers you should follow

I admire all these bloggers, not only for their high-quality work, but also their enthusiasm for art and sharing their passion with others. I’m impressed with their vibrant personalities and determination to make things happen. I could go on for ages, praising these people and their work, but I think it’s much better if you go see for yourself why I think these are 3 street art bloggers you should follow!

Inspiring City

Inspiring City is the fantastic street art blog by Yorkshire-born Stuart. When he moved from Yorkshire to London almost 7 years ago now, he found himself constantly inspired by this vibrant and culturally rich city. Especially the art in the streets first caught his eye and inspired him to start his blog, hence the name Inspiring City.

Over the years the website has, deservedly so, won several blog awards. Stuart covers street art exhibitions, special events and festivals, but also does great in-depth interviews and writes fascinating articles on London history. All topics that I love so it’s clear why I’d recommend this blog! Besides blogging, Stuart also recently started his podcast Art Related Nonsense for which he interviews artists and influencers.

What I like most about Stuart is his cheerful spirit, enthusiasm and passion for street art. I can’t exactly remember how it all came about, but not long after I started Dutch Girl in London I came across Stuart’s website online. It turned out that we both lived in East London and, both being street art enthusiasts, we arranged to meet up.

From the beginning, Stuart was very generous and introduced me to a bunch of artists, fellow bloggers, gallery owners and photographers. We went to some paint jams, events and exhibitions together. We once had some very ambitious plans for collaborations, but in the end only did two projects together. In 2014 we co-curated the show Embraced by German street artist KEF! at Genesis Cinema in East London.

A few months later, Stuart and I did an interview with artists Sam Peacock and Roy’s People for their upcoming exhibition. As I wrote at the time, it was a pretty ‘animated’ evening. If you want to read it back, click on the following link: Steel Life: Sam Peacock and Roy’s People. Here are the opening lines:

A Dutch girl walks into a bar and joins a Yorkshireman, an Essexer and a Midlander…
Not the beginning of a joke, but actually the start of an animated interview between fellow blogger Inspiring City, artists Sam Peacock, Roy’s People and myself.”

Although we don’t see each other that often anymore, I’m still very grateful for Stuart having me tag along all those years ago and help me make my first introductions in the London street art scene.

Street Art United States

Street Art United States is a global community that not only documents but also enables street art. The website, with over 180,000 followers on social media, is founded by Boston-based Sami. I found his website on Twitter whilst during research on good street art spots in Boston prior to my visit 4 years ago. Sami responded positive to my enthusiastic request if we could meet up and see some street art together. It wasn’t until later I realised that Sami wasn’t a girl’s name and that I had agreed to meet up with a total stranger… in his car!

Admittedly, I was a bit nervous the morning before our agreed meeting. Locals whom I had met the days before said that the area where Sami intended to bring me, was rather ‘dodgy’. Of course dodgy is just what you want to hear as a street art blogger because that’s where you’ll find the best stuff!

It turned out that my nerves were totally unfounded. Sami is actually one of the kindest and most gentle people I’ve ever met. Besides being a wonderful person, Sami also works hard on making art available to everyone, whether it’s through his blog and social media or by actually enabling artists to create murals.

Sami’s not only passionate about street art. He’s also socially engaged and has created a section on his website dedicated to non-art related articles written by photojournalists and photographers, called Off the beaten path. With these articles he aims ‘to shed a light on important issues that the rest of the world is facing, that we hardly hear about, and seem “unimportant” to the Western media to even give it the exposure that it deserves.’

I’m proud to be able to call Sami a friend and can’t wait to see what more great things he will get up to in the future!

Blocal

I first heard about Blocal when owner and founder Giulia contacted me to be part of her street art community on Facebook. And since then I’ve grown very fond of Giulia and her website. Despite only having seen her once in real life, during this year’s edition of Upfest, I feel like I know her quite well through her vlogs. Giulia’s sparkling personality is quite infectious and I wish I had just even half of her energy!

Giulia describes Blocal as a travel & street art blog where she ‘writes about unconventional destinations, abandoned places, street art, outskirts, urban landscapes, weird spots and basically all the places [she happens] to visit and become very enthusiastic about.’

Originally hailing from Rome, Giulia has lived abroad several times. She’s currently located in Amsterdam where’s she’s working at the soon to open world’s largest street art museum! I don’t know how she manages to write such a high-quality blog in between all her many travels, documenting fantastic street art events and festivals.

If you also enjoy looking for street art whilst travelling, then do make sure to check out Giulia’s detailed street art guides. Those guides include artworks and their locations which aren’t always that easy to find through googling. And as a special bonus, if you sign up to Giulia’s monthly newsletter, you’ll get exclusive access to her street art and urbex maps!

Thank you Stuart, Sami and Giulia for sharing your kindness and enthusiasm with me and others! 

Street art on my own blog and Instagram

If you’re interested in seeing more street art content, then head over to my Instagram account @dutchgirlinlondon. There you’ll find high-quality street art photos, including geo locations and artist information.

Or just browse through my street art archive on this website. Let me suggest a few highlights for you here:

• Street Artists Unveiled #3 Interview with Animator and Street Artist Dr Cream

• Street Artists Unveiled #4: Interview Mr Fahrenheit

• My Personal Highlights of Bristol Upfest 2018, Europe’s Largest Street Art and Graffiti Festival

For great street art finds around the globe, have a look at the street art archive on my cultural travel blog Done That Been There. Some of the street art highlights on there are:

• Discover the Singapore Street Art Scene

• Marseille Street Art

• Málaga Street Art Project: MAUS

• Berlin Street Art

5 year anniversary giveaway!

There are many more street art bloggers, photographers, curators, artists and enthusiasts I’ve met and befriended over the years and who mean a lot to me and my blog. But if I would include everybody here, this blog post would be at least five times as long! So, big thank you to all you kind people out there and accepting me in the street art community. You know who you are!

And in case you’re worried I’d let my 5-year anniversary go by like that, rest assured. To celebrate this special occasion, there will be special anniversary blog post with giveaway here soon!

Do you know any street art bloggers/photographers you think I should definitely follow? Please drop their name/online links in a comment below!
Thanks, Zarina xx