National award for Quirindi silo art

The Quirindi Silo Art and Light and Sound project has been named ‘Best of the Best’ at the Australian Street Art Awards.

The silo art located an hour south of Gunnedah also won the gold award for the Best Mega Mural and the Best Street Art Experience in NSW Award.

Created by lead artist Peter Ryan, the art display also showcases a 20-minute light and sound show each night at the silo.

Onlookers watch in awe as kangaroos bound, raindrops flow, sunflowers bloom and fireworks explode in a choreographed digital display.

Awards co-director Liz Rivers said investing in outdoor art as an attraction mechanism also makes economic sense.

“Art is typically less expensive to create than more traditional tourism attractions while the pay-off is handsome,” she said.

According to an Australia Council for the Arts’ Domestic Art Tourism – Connecting the Country Report, domestic arts tourists stay almost one-and-a-half times longer and spend about one-and-a-half times more per day than domestic tourists overall.

Member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson said the Quirindi silo project was supported by a $199,981 grant from the NSW government.

“The Quirindi Silo Art Committee are an incredibly hard working, dedicated committee of volunteers who saw the tourism benefits silo art brought to neighbouring towns in Gunnedah and Barraba and sought to tap into the silo art trail,” Mr Anderson said.