A tour of the newest Wabash Walls

Check out the results of this year’s Wabash Walls mural festival.

• Thanks to today’s sponsors The Bindery Artist Studios and LaLa Gallery, presenting the Indiana Makers Market "Summer Pop-Up.” Mark your calendar for an event that features handpicked makers from all over the state to showcase their handmade items for sale in beautiful downtown Lafayette on Saturday, Aug. 31. The event is free to attend, set up between Fifth and Sixth streets on Ferry Street from 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday.

Click here for more details.

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A TOUR OF THE NEWEST WABASH WALLS

They were talking about cookies as things wrapped up for this year’s installment of the Wabash Walls. Snickerdoodles, specifically.

Rabi Towing, one in a collection of street artists that go by the Monster Crew and at the center of this year’s mural festival, said people from the Lincoln Neighborhood dropped by early and often as he worked the past week on one side of a Food Finders Food Bank warehouse at 10^th and Roberts streets. Snacks of watermelon and drinks followed. So did the offer for home-baked cookies, his choice. He said he like snickerdoodles, and in short order, the cookies arrived.

“It’s been hot, but it’s been great,” he said during a ceremony Thursday to dedicate murals spread across Lafayette and West Lafayette. “Let me tell you something, I like this town. I like it a lot. … I hope you like the wall. I put my whole heart into it.”

The seventh edition of Wabash Walls added six murals to what Tetia Lee, CEO of The Arts Federation, said were more than 100 in Greater Lafayette and surrounding communities since the program and its annual festival started in 2018. (Two more are expected, beyond the scheduled close. Cera, an artist who has worked in previous years of Wabash Walls, will work through early next week on two pylons under the John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge, on the West Lafayette side.)

The festival – curated by The Arts Federation and funded, in part, by the cities and Tippecanoe County – takes its name from the Wabash Avenue Neighborhood, where Wabash Walls started with a series of murals in 2018 that remain today on warehouses, retaining walls, homes and streets. Each year since then, artists recruited nationally and internationally have spent a week in and around Lafayette, creating murals in other neighborhoods. This year, Wabash Walls spilled into the Historic Jefferson and Lincoln neighborhoods in Lafayette and into West Lafayette. Lee said the sort of neighbor interaction Rabi Towing talked about was baked into the Wabash Walls concept.

“I think these make a tremendous difference in the community,” Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski said, standing under a piece by Tristan Eaton on the side of Wabash Landing Apartments. “Thanks to these artists.”

Hiero Viego, who worked on a piece along the roofline of the Tippecanoe County Public Library, thanked TAF for “letting me do what we do.”

“This is what we’re called to do,” he said.

Here’s a look at where things stood with the murals after a week of work.

Tristan Eaton, Wabash Landing Apartments (in the walkway at Wabash Landing), West Lafayette

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Shane Hello, 307 Sagamore Parkway W. (behind the building, facing Navajo Street), West Lafayette

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Today’s a good day to subscribe to the Based in Lafayette reporting project. Get editions straight to your inbox. Free and full-access subscriptions are available here …

Grace the Streets, 1201 Cincinnati St., Lafayette

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Rabi Towing, Food Finders Food Bank warehouse, 10^th and Roberts streets, Lafayette

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Hiero Veiga, Tippecanoe County Public Library, Jos Holman Branch, 627 South St., Lafayette

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Zach Medler, 210 N. 11^th St. (in the alley), Lafayette

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• For more about the history and this year’s edition of Wabash Walls, here’s a Q&A with TAF CEO Tetia Lee from last week:

THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …

• Orange will be the theme on the Tippecanoe County Courthouse dome, the Lafayette Public Safety Center and in the water of the Sonya Margerum Fountain on the west side of the John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge to mark the start of Hunger Action Month. Starting Friday, Aug. 30, the splashes of orange are meant to highlight a collective effort to combat food insecurity in Food Finders Food Bank’s 16-county service area. Among the ways to help: Customers at Pay Less Super Markets and Fresh Thyme Market can round up their bill to the nearest dollar or donate at the register, with funds going to Food Finders. For more information about Food Finders Food Bank and its initiatives, go to www.food-finders.org.

• The Purdue Exponent’s Katie Walling had a story that asked a lot of questions but didn’t get much response from the university about what’s taking so long on searches for a pair of deans in the colleges of Education and Health and Human Sciences. As speculation grows over the delays, here’s a way into the story: “2 Purdue colleges are without leadership, and finding replacements may take years.”

• The J&C’s Ron Wilkins broke down some of the numbers from a recent study with five-year data about intersections with the most crashes in Greater Lafayette. Here’s a way into the lists: “Where, when are you most likely to have a traffic accident in Tippecanoe County?”

• More than 50 air conditioners are available in the current heat wave for seniors and households with low income through the United Way of Greater Lafayette, via a donation from the Duke Energy Foundation. For details on free A/C units or fans, contact the United Way of Greater Lafayette at 765-742-9077.

• What the librarians said … Fresh editions and archives of Based in Lafayette are now available at the West Lafayette Public Library and at the Caretaker’s Cottage/West Lafayette History Center. Ask for it by name at your nearest reference desk. (And as always, full-access subscriptions, straight to your inbox, are available here.)

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AND FINALLY, IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS …: Here’s a way into Tim’s Picks, five choice ideas for your Greater Lafayette Labor Day weekend – plus the 80^th edition of Mosey Down Main Street.

Thanks, again, to today’s sponsors The Bindery Artist Studios and LaLa Gallery, presenting the Indiana Makers Market "Summer Pop-Up.”  on Saturday, Aug. 31, in downtown Lafayette. Details here.

Thank you for supporting Based in Lafayette, an independent, local reporting project. Free and full-ride subscription options are ready for you here.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.