All art fans and artists alike have their preferred medium. In a post-Banksy 2013, street art is certainly one that has been sliding up the scales of people’s tastes. And thus, Street Art London have a brand new festival starting today (until May 19) to celebrate, in a project they’re calling ‘Baroque the Streets’.

The festival boasts some of the biggest names in street art who will be popping down to Dulwich to showcase a cornucopia of public etchings and murals, all held in England’s oldest public gallery. This event includes all the normal gallery drills and thrills, with tours led by academics, talks from experts and many opportunities to soak up the culture of the large scale scrawlings.

For info, see streetartlondon.co.uk.

Feelings of anxiety, depression and vulnerability are sadly the biggest killers of young men in London. It seems like there’s a lot of guys out there who don’t know where to look for support. Charity CALM (aka the Campaign Against Living Miserably), want men of all ages to know there’s somewhere to turn, and to promote their cause, on Sunday March 24, they are taking over three billboards on the south side of Old Street at the junction with Pitfield Street and Great Eastern Street. To get this bonanza off the ground, viral marketing whizz kids Soulful Creative pitched in and provided three up-and-coming artists: Koze, Richt and 45rpm who will be spreading their urban magic across the billboards for all passers by to watch. There will also be DJs and refreshments on tap all day, as well as the CALM guys, who’ll be on hand to have a chat from 9am. Adam Bloodworth

Do you know anyone in need of some friendly, expert advice? Get them in touch with CALM, who are doing their bit to prevent the UK’s single largest male killer. For more, see thecalmzone.net.

Unless you’ve been walking around London with your eyes closed you’ll be familiar with the long limbed round headed characters by street artist Stik. This week Big Issue vendors who buy the magazines themselves are doubling up as art dealers as random magazine will have Stik prints inside them. There are four prints available, 30,000 blue, 30,000 red, 10,000 yellow and 5,000 orange some of which have been signed by the artist.

Having been homeless himself this is a project close to the artist’s heart: ‘Being homeless is one of the most debilitating things that can happen to an individual. All the support systems rely on you having a home. My stick figures don’t have mouths, they are silent, but people see them. Most homeless people are invisible as well as silent. The Big Issue gives them a voice and I hope this collaboration reminds people that the people selling The Big Issue are trying really hard to help themselves, and to get out there and speak to them.’

For more info, see bigissue.org.uk. If you would like to show support for the Big Issue vendors, take part in The Big London Sleep Out on April 26.

We love DoorDitch, a blog beautifully capturing the doorways of Shoreditch. We asked them for a run down of their favourite entrances…

‘DoorDitch began as an accident with this door above. Taking a picture of the fairly mundane as I often did (and many others do) with Instagram. I also posted it through to Twitter. A couple of minutes later following up with another tweet; “damn, should have captioned that one DoorDitch”. Just one reply of “delete and repost” had me taking more pictures of any of the doors I came across in the area and adding it to the #DoorDitch hash tag.’

‘With over 100 doors, it’s easy to notice many of the DoorDitch doors play host to graffiti and street art, some scribble and some now famous. This particular door has always been a favourite for being so bland yet ending up being one of the most unique and dramatic.’

‘This almost mummified door was another favourite and when I first saw it, the sense of excitement I felt towards it was the point I realised how much I was enjoying this odd hobby I stumbled upon.’

‘This door features in the Robbie Williams music video ‘Candy’. It took me a few views and some walking to figure out exactly where the video was filmed. Once I found the featured door I noticed how different it now was – maybe just a month or two since it was captured in the video. This highlighted how quickly things are evolving and changing in the area.’

‘I wasn’t sure what to do with all the pictures, was there anything? Add locations so people could visit them in person or maybe find out the history of the building attached to the door? I decided to open the whole thing up and let people pick a door which inspires them to write a short story to live behind their chosen door. I wasn’t sure if anyone would, but to my surprise they did. This one is a favourite as I was sent the context of the story and why they chose that door. @CarrieLove_art said it was ‘inspired by a lifetime of consoling my Dad to my artist’s lifestyle’. Hopefully, all doors will end up with a story behind them eventually.’

Head over to DoorDitch.co.uk and pick your own door to write a story for. You can also follow on Instagram and twitter: @DoorDitch.

Pictures of Walls is a website dedicated to those amazing, witty, pointless and sometimes just plain rude acts of blatant sharpie use around town. People are invited to upload pictures of amusing wall musings they’ve seen to add to over 4,000 images already archived. If you weren’t already convinced of it’s greatness, renoun graffiti artist Blek le Rat is a big fan and says it’s an inspirational website. Get snapping… Jude Brosnan

See more at picturesofwalls.com

Though artists such as Mr Brainwash make it easy to forget, street art and politics go hand in hand and there’s no better way to reignite that fiery connection than at the ‘Follow Your Art: Street Art Against Slavery’ exhibition. Leading artists such as Sweet Toof, Rowdy, Pure Evil, Olek and Toasters have come together to highlight the existence and complexity of modern day slavery at Village Underground this Wednesday October 3. The one day exhibition will include a DJ set from Massive Attack and performance from Leon Rhymes, as well as an auction for Anti-Slavery International. With limited spaces, this is a hot topic sending it straight to the top of this week’s Hot List.

For info and to see other highlights of the week, see the Hot List.

Jaded, much? (Photo: richard27, Instagram)

In this week’s mag, we’re all about London’s vibrant street art. Fortunately, you lot have been documenting it with aplomb over the past few months – here are some of your Flickr & Instagram shots of the urban action.

Rainbow puke on Bethnal Green Road. Photo: amandact, Instagram

Mosaic of Lilian Baylis on the South Bank. Photo: asacalabasa, Instagram.

Pigeon by Ronzo, east London. (Photo: Claude Crommelin, Flickr.)

Mural by Ben Slow. (Photo: Massimo Usai, Flickr.)

Monsters (and pedestrian) on Great Eastern Street, by Malarky. (Photo: amandact, Instagram.)

Mural on Bacon St, off Brick Lane. (Photo: ef61, Instagram)

Mural by Nazir Tanbouli. (Photo: Claude Crommelin, Flickr)

An old Banksy. (Photo: thebombingcampaign, Instagram)

Olympic snatch’n'grab, Haggerston. (Photo: richard27, Instagram)

Dream big. (Photo: uyiosa, Instagram)

Work collides on Fashion St. (Photo: thebombingcampaign, Instagram)

A parody of the Space Invaders mosaics. (Photo: Claude Crommelin, Flickr)

Stick men by Stik. (Photo: Claude Crommelin, Flickr)

Hedgehog mural by Roa. (Photo: Claude Crommelin, Flickr)

For more, visit our Street Art page.

This week we are hitting the streets to discover work by some of the best international urban artists currently transforming our city into an outdoor gallery. But where to start looking? We track down the colourful contributions of artists including Malarky, Invader, Stik, Conor Harrington, Banksy, Roa, Phlegm, Burning Candy Crew, Ben Slow and Pablo Delgado and chat to Richard Howard-Griffin, CEO of Street Art London about why our city has become an internationally renowned street art hub. We even got Paintshop Studio to create our very own mag cover which you can watch above or by downloading the Aurasma app and pointing your smartphone at the cover. Magic.

This week’s Time Out Magazine is out tomorrow – to get Time Out delivered to your door, subscribe here. Find out more about street art in London.

Ever feel like someone is watching you as you wander? We may have the answer. Over the past two years, council blocks all over the city have grown a set of eyes and though it may sound menacing, the colourful, exaggerated peepers have a much more uplifting and inspiring message than the CCTV trailing your every move. Graffiti group ATG decided to remind some neglected London communities that they still have control over their own surroundings by bringing a bit of creativity to the area. Since December 2010, the eyes, accompanied by inspirational slogans, have been popping up all over town and now you will be able to view them in one place. The Stolen Space gallery will be showing a collection of screen prints, originals and photographs, as well as launching a limited-edition hand-bound book. Carly-Ann Clements

For info, see stolenspace.com.

Each week, we’re giving one of your photos pride of place in our magazine – and right here on the blog, of course. This week, kenjonbro captured this fetchingly attired phone booth in Trafalgar Square…

‘Muncher (pictured) has nothing to do with our Cyclopean Olympic mascots, but is instead a phonebox cosy created by ‘grafitti knitting pioneer’ Deadly Knitshade (aka Lauren O’Farrell) for BT’s Artbox campaign. You can distinguish it from Wenlock & Mandeville by checking for the giant gnashers. After all, everyone knows that when it comes to inspiring the public, our official mascots are entirely without teeth.

Show us London through your lens – submit photos to our Time Out London Flickr group or tag your Instagram photos #timeoutlondon.