Creative posters dominate lamp posts

By Katie Carroll | March 9, 2011.

It’s that time again when every visible lamp post has been suffocated with election posters. These posters are known for being dull, monotonous and rather irritating, but an arts initiative has set about creating something different.

Upstart is a non-profit organisation whose main objective is to ‘bring the role of the arts to the centre of the public consciousness during the General Election Campaign’.

Throughout the course of the recent general election, UpStart distributed 1,000 posters around the city using the spaces commonly used for political posters. However, instead of featuring politician’s mug shots, the posters consisted of artwork and poetry submitted from both Irish and international artists.

A refreshing concept, the collective’s main objective is to encourage a debate on the role of the arts in the state and to emphasize its importance in public life. Their aim is also to promote creativity at a time when society is in need of direction, stating on their website that the ‘future development of the country requires a healthy cultivation of the Arts’.

UpStart is comprised of a core panel of filmmakers and artists, who together, selected and exhibited the chosen work.

For more information log onto www.upstart.ie