The return of Wabash Walls, year No. 7
A Q&A with The Art Federation’s Tetia Lee on how Indiana’s first mural festival, started on Lafayette’s Wabash Avenue, keeps growing and spreading. Artists get to work Tuesday
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THE RETURN OF WABASH WALLS, YEAR NO. 7
Lifts are lined up, boxes of spray paint are coming out of storage and cans were being sorted this week as street artists arrive Tuesday for the start of Wabash Walls, touted as Indiana’s first mural festival now ready to go for its seventh year in Greater Lafayette.
“This really is crunch time for us,” Tetia Lee, CEO of The Arts Federation, said. “And I’m just loving it.”
The project, a $300,000 festival this year funded in part by the cities and 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. (Last year’s focus was along an industrial corridor of North Ninth Street, including the bridge pylons under Sagamore Parkway.)
This year’s Wabash Walls will branch into the Historic Jefferson and Lincoln neighborhoods in Lafayette and into West Lafayette, too, with canvases that include bridge abutments near the Wabash River, a West Side strip center, an upper portion of Wabash Landing and along the roofline of the Tippecanoe County Public Library, among them.
The artists – a group known as the Monster Crew, pulled together for Wabash Walls as part by the return of Miami-based artist Hiero Viega – will work 10 days, from Tuesday through Aug. 29.
Question: Did you see Wabash Walls taking off the way it did when you started in 2018? It really has developed into something.
Tetia Lee: Oh my goodness, I could not have imagined the growth and the popularity and just the success of Wabash Walls as a mural program and Wabash Walls as a festival. I don't know what I thought we were putting together, but it exceeded any sort of expectation that I could have had for bringing something beautiful to our community.
Question: What’s different this year? And what’s the same as those first Wabash Walls festivals?
Tetia Lee: What's different this year is that West Lafayette has asked to be brought into the Wabash Walls festival footprint, so we're excited to do work with the city. They've really embraced the idea of utilizing public art murals, specifically as a quality of life enhancer. We couldn't be happier for that partnership. What remains the same is the deep connection that we have with the residents and the community in terms of developing the subject matter and the themes and identifying the artists for each of the walls that are being painted. So, the spirit of Wabash Walls very much remains the same, even though our geography has expanded.
Question: That goes back to the Wabash Avenue neighborhood, residents and businesses, embracing it the first time, right?
Tetia Lee: Absolutely. Really, they're the heart of the Wabash Walls festival. They really set a bar for what a public art program can look like when you have all the right people and you've invited everyone to the table, and they are open and willing to help guide and lead the process. Just the way they embraced the artists and the projects, in general, opening up their homes, sharing their food, sharing their histories. And just that spirit of neighborhood and community. I would say the residents of Wabash Avenue, they are absolutely the heart and the essence of Wabash Walls.
Question: Have you found that same kind of commitment and anticipation this year from the neighborhoods and organizations involved?
Tetia Lee: The same sort of anticipation is absolutely there. Every time we go into a different geography, folks kind of experience similar, maybe what you’d call apprehension about it. As in, What's going on? Because it's so different from what the average resident in the neighborhood is going to experience in their time as a homeowner or as a renter. At the end of it, though, that level of engagement is going to be the same. Folks are going to come out. I never get tired of seeing people smile and wave and scream out to the artists like, “Great job!” or honk their horns. That's always really exciting when we get started. But for those that have been in on the planning phases for over a year now, the anticipation is absolutely as high as it could be.
Question: What kind of prep have you been doing this week, leading up to Tuesday morning?
Tetia Lee: Our crews are out prepping the walls to make sure that we have good surfaces for all of the murals. That's really to ensure that the murals stay up for decades. So, after you and I are retired, those murals are still going to be there. That's just part of the quality control that we make sure happens so that it is a solid investment for all those that are partnering with us, whether it be the cities or private building owners or commercial companies. The lifts are being dropped off. Finalized details on getting all of the preparations for each of the artists, so that when they get here, all they have to worry about is painting. We take care of their food, their snacks, their bevies. We really do want to roll out the Hoosier hospitality red carpet for them. And just prepping my team at TAF to be the best hosts for these artists, as well. It's the last stretch of the prep before the artists get here.
Question: You and I have spoken, dating back to the very beginning, about how when you were getting support from the city, Mayor (Tony) Roswarski was saying that if you're going to do this, let's make it high quality. How has that played into the buy-in for this, and also in how you recruited artists, including the set of artists coming this year?
Tetia Lee: It was the city of Lafayette's, at least in my time with The Arts Federation, biggest single investment in the arts outside of a sponsorship. The $50,000 investment then was really, I believe, Mayor Roswarski’s opportunity that he provided for us to prove that the arts were a worthy investment. So, along with that, he gave us a tall order: I want to have high quality, I want world-renowned artists. He set the bar really high. And we knew, in order to ensure the consideration of future funding, that we really had to knock it out of the park.
So, we were very mindful about the artists that we brought in to ensure that people were going to be familiar with some of the names. We also made sure that we included some of our local artists that could interact and hopefully join in the mural festivals that go on around the globe and throughout the nation. With regard to what It looks like now, into the seventh year, I mean even after that first year, I had literally hundreds of street artists reaching out to me to be considered for the next year. And throughout the year, I have artists that are sending me their portfolios wanting to be a part of the festival. Because they've heard how well we take care of our artists, and that when they participate and have a workup that is associated with Wabash Walls, that's very meaningful for them, because they're painting alongside these giants in the industry.
In terms of this group of artists that we brought in, we were able to successfully work with an artist that's a part of this crew. He talked to the rest of his crew, and said, hey, this is a really good festival. What they're doing in Indiana is incredible. And we should take a look at it. That's really where the recruitment for these artists started, and that was at the conclusion of last year. I think that it's a really incredible compliment when we do have artists that have participated in the festival then tell their colleagues about, Yeah, you should really look at this festival. They treat us really well, and it's a good time. To establish that sort of reputation in the art street art community is really huge. And it's extremely flattering. But that also tells me that we're doing something right, and that by prioritizing the artists and their experience here, that should hopefully set a bar for other organizers of festivals to treat their artists the same, because none of this can happen without the talented individuals that bring forward the treasure of their skills. I don't want artists to ever worry about anything else besides doing what they love.
Question: Are you encouraging people to come out and watch the work, interact with the artists, that sort of thing?
Tetia Lee: Absolutely. The process of taking a piece of art that they've drawn or designed on something that would be like 8½-by-11 (inches) or that they're referencing an image that's on their phone to mural size that by definition is large is quite something to behold. I think the appreciation of the process is so much deeper when you get to witness it. I know that we've gotten some feedback already as we're doing the artists announcements that folks are coming in, and they're so excited to be able to meet and to hopefully talk with these artists that are here, to watch their technique, learn from them. A lot of the previous artists that I've worked with for Wabash Walls have been reaching out, and they're really excited about having been a part of the program. It's something that they can stand behind and support, because they know that our goals are really to provide that sort of accessibility and inclusivity and diversity and equity. I think that that just permeates through the entire community when you see folks that all have that same sort of spirit or goal in mind for the outcome of the project. So, the more the merrier. Come out.
For more
The artists: The Monster Crew includes Rabi Towing, Grace the Streets, Shane Hello, Tristan Eaton and Hiero Viega.
The locations:
Wabash River bridge pylons near Tapawingo Park, West Lafayette
1102 North St., Jefferson Neighborhood in Lafayette
Tippecanoe County Public Library, 627 South St., Lafayette
Food Finders warehouse, 1210 N. Tenth St., Lafayette
Wabash Landing apartments, 325 Brown St., West Lafayette
307 Sagamore Parkway, West Lafayette
How to follow Wabash Walls: Check the progress and the history of Wabash Walls at: wabashwalls.theartsfederation.org. Follow @theartsfed and @wabashwalls on Facebook and Instagram.
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