Friday's Newsflash - Penang's Heritage Sculptures Completion Ahead of Time

From today onwards, I'll start a weekly entry every Fridays on tourism news I read about throughout the whole week and share it here in my blog. I always believe in the notion, good things are meant to be shared, and when it comes to tourism sector, I'll definitely do my part in promoting more people to go travelling, be it local tourism or overseas tourism.

The spotlight for today falls on the news I read last night on The Star about the caricatures graffiti scattering around George Town, Penang, to commemorate the UNESCO heritage listing. I first found out about this heritage project back when I was still doing my first degree in USM and I saw a few of these witty sculptures that had been erected along the streets of Penang.

Where's My Husband? along Love Lane

This "Marking George town" project has a few phases and apparently, it has been going along ahead of its Tscheduled completion date in the first half of 2013. Instead, all the caricatures will be installed at its respective streets by the end of this year. There will be a total of 51 sculptures and to date, 25 had already been set in place. Most of these caricatures depict the daily lifestyles of Penangnites in the past as well as the present. You will be given glimpses of the island's history through these funny, often sarcastic, graffiti.

Here's Kedai Tuak at Market Lane

Personally, I'm amazed of this initiative the State Government had taken to mark the beautiful heritage of Penang. This hipster approach to instil appreciative nature towards heritage as well as contemporary art is innovative idea. We need more awareness towards preserving our heritages and with this project, a new breath of air will be given to George Town. Besides the delicious foods at the island, tourists can now understand more about the peoples of Penang with these sculptures. Therefore, heck of a good job!

After I left George Town, I only saw two or three of these unique arts and I had been constantly searching for more news and information on it. Well, I guess I will be dropping by Penang soon (at least by end of the year) to hunt these street arts down. You can read more about this project here at the Sculpture At Work (that's the company)'s official website or click here for The Star's news I mentioned above.