Over the last month, Delhiites are waking up to colourful surprises splashed across the community walls. Film and advertising posters, apart from political graffiti, were the only excitement known to drab Delhi walls for long.  But the ongoing street art festival is providing a rather pleasing respite by converting neighbourhoods into open exhibitions, with the aim to take art beyond galleries to the street.

Artists from around the world have descended on the national capital as part of a project by St. Art, a collective of volunteers and painters who aim to beautify Indian cities. Even though the same festival was held over a period of six months last year as well, its second edition aims to beautify some landmark buildings, cold storages, flyovers and underpasses, and even some buses, in collaboration with the New Delhi Municipal Corporation.

After similar events in Chennai, Mumbai and other cities in the past, NDMC has taken to the idea with plans to introduce ‘art streets’ near the Connaught Place area. The project envisages providing artists with licences to produce art on the walls of the surroundings to “liven them up” and to sell their other wares from these licensed streets, from memorabilia to prints.

St. Art, on its part, is beautifying Delhi’s walls free of cost as its largest sponsor Asian Paints provides enough material to keep the project going. In this edition, the artists can already be seen painting around parts of Connaught Place, Khan Market, Ashok Vihar, Lodhi Colony, Moolchand and even a few Delhi Transport Corporation buses.

Here’s a snapshot of art work one is likely to spot when moving around the capital: