Street Art Google Street View Project: The 2011 Story

Street Art View was a collaborative street art Google Street View project launched in February 2011: people tagged Street View panoramas that showed murals, paste-ups, stencils, and other pieces. Sponsored by Red Bull, it is separate from Google's later Google Street Art Project, which the Cultural Institute began in 2014 as its own online archive at streetart.withgoogle.com.

What was the Street Art View project?

Street Art View was an early online map of street art found in Google Street View scenes. Launched in February 2011 and sponsored by Red Bull, it invited anyone to tag panoramas that showed murals, paste-ups, stencils, and other pieces. An archived copy of the project's awards page from April 3, 2013 lists 8,073 tagged artworks. The collection depended on contributors, so it reflected what people noticed and chose to mark. Street View mural tags marked places, not portable works; a tag recorded where a piece appeared, not a reproduction of the art. The project sits in the longer history of urban art documentation, from early photographs to online maps, which this guide covers in where street art comes from.

How did tagging murals in Street View work?

Instead of building a separate collection, Street Art View used existing Google Street View imagery. A panorama is a fixed 360-degree street scene, so it shows one pass by Google's cameras. A user could open a panorama, notice a mural or tag, and mark the location as street art. The archived page said anyone could tag artworks in any Street View site. Each entry pointed to a fixed panorama, so a tagged mural was tied to the moment Google's cameras passed that wall. The method could only record art already visible in Google's imagery. That snapshot quality matters when moving from digital maps to real routes: a panorama can preserve art that later disappeared, but it does not prove the wall still looks the same.

Who made Street Art View?

The archived awards page uses the title “RED BULL STREET ART VIEW” and sits in the project's awards section. Its April 3, 2013 capture describes the collection as open to anyone; Red Bull's sponsorship was central to the project's public identity. The project also arrived at a moment when street artists were moving from anonymity to recognition online.

How is it different from the Google Street Art Project?

The names sound similar, but they describe separate efforts. Street Art View was a brand-led tagging project that started in 2011; Google's Cultural Institute launched the Google Street Art Project in 2014 as its own online archive.

The practical difference is method: Street Art View grew by user tags, while the Google Street Art Project was a separate Google-run site.

Can you still see these murals today?

Not always. Street View murals are snapshots, not guarantees. A tagged panorama captures the wall as Google's cameras recorded it, but street art is often ephemeral. Since 2011, walls have been buffed, demolished, or painted over; a mural visible in the archive may no longer exist. Murals can disappear quickly when a property owner paints a wall or a building changes hands. To check, compare an old panorama with a recent photo or a local report before traveling, and look at the wall the way you would when looking at murals without rushing. Google's own Arts & Culture tour uses Street View scenes from Bushwick, Brooklyn, but a viewer still has to verify whether each wall looks the same now. That movement from fixed panoramas to browser-based collections is part of how urban art moved online.

FAQ

What was Street Art View?

Street Art View was a collaborative 2011 project sponsored by Red Bull that let people tag Google Street View panoramas showing street art.

Is Street Art View the same as the Google Street Art Project?

No. Street Art View began in 2011 and relied on open tagging, while Google's Cultural Institute launched the Google Street Art Project in 2014 as a separate online archive.

Can you still view the murals in Street View?

Sometimes. A panorama is a snapshot, and the wall may have been painted over or demolished since the image was captured; check a recent photo or local report before visiting.

Sources

• Wayback Machine capture of streetartview.com/awards/cyber.php, April 3, 2013.
• Google Street Art Project, streetart.withgoogle.com.
• Google Arts & Culture, “Street View Street Art: Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York.”