City Walls, Connected Souls: A Study of Street Art and Sense of Belonging

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of street art on the sense of belonging in urban spaces. There were two key variables investigated to understand this relationship: residency status of participants (resident vs. visitor) and self-reported art appreciation (continuous variable). Sense of belonging was measured before and after participants were exposed to street art in Utrecht. Two repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted to analyze the impact of viewing street art on sense of belonging. Results showed that both residents and visitors showed a significant increase in their sense of belonging, when compared with before exposure to street art. However, the visitors showed a higher increase in their sense of belonging, compared with the residents. Contrary to the hypothesis, art appreciation did not have a significant impact on the extent to which street art influenced a sense of belonging. These results indicate that visitors in a city benefit most from viewing street art, and that predisposed interest in art is not necessary for benefiting positive effects of art. Despite some limitations like the online, self-report nature of the study and limited construct validity, this study yielded important findings about how art can be utilized as a social tool to construct identities, communities, social inclusion and a sense of belonging in urban spaces.