Four shopfronts have already been earmarked for installations as part of the initiative, two on Sturt Street and two in the Bridge Mall with two more yet to be identified, while Ballarat Evolve has been commissioned to install the artwork.

Spencer Harrison has taken over the front of 324 Sturt Street with his 24-minute loop of animations displayed on two screens at the shop window, while 131 Sturt Street will display Marce King's art, 10 Bridge Mall will display Antayjo Art and 26 Bridge Mall will show Arthur Creative's work.

The City of Ballarat received a $30,000 grant from the state government for the project, which is the second time council has commissioned artists to brighten up empty shop fronts after Ballarat Evolve installed art in a number of Bridge Mall windows last year.

Mr Harrison said his came from teaching himself animation skills while not being able to access studio space during lockdown.

"I wanted to create a really colourful, vibrant portal that would draw people in from across the street and hopefully into the city centre of Ballarat," he said.

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"Any little bit helps because the arts have been impacted a lot in the last few years. I've had exhibitions cancelled and other opportunities cancelled, so to have these opportunities starting up again, it gives me optimism for the future of my art practice.

"It's rare to get a project where you have full creative control and they pretty much said go to town with it, put what you want in the windows, do what you want on the graphics. I feel honoured that they put the trust in me to be able to do this and hopefully people enjoy it."

Ballarat mayor Daniel Moloney said he would love to see both active and empty shopfronts utilise local artists going forward.

"Retail is not dead in central areas like Ballarat. It's just about how we do it differently and how we give people a point of difference, how we create something different and exciting for shopper," he said.

"There's an awesome opportunity for our business sector to work with artists to make their shopfronts interesting and vibrant. This is something that we really did back in 1950s and 1960s in a massive way, shopfronts mattered.

"I think that our artistic community can actually help to inspire people to come back to shop in person. There's already great friendly service and another point of difference, I think would really help so I think this is a sign of things that should be the new norm."

Member for Wendouree Juliana Addison said COVID had been particularly difficult for artists.

"An opportunity for the state government to be able to invest $30,000 locally to support local artists, to build our creative city strategy and to really say that we value the work that you do," she said.

"I really hope over the next eight weeks, thousands of people from across the community will come to Sturt Street, will come to Bridge Mall, seek out these beautiful installations and really say how lucky are we to live in Ballarat."

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