20,000 square feet of wall space distributed across three buildings in southwest Atlanta will soon bear new murals by more than 50 local artists.
The Atlanta Crossroads Mural Festival (ACMF) inaugural mural festival will culminate in a celebration of public art with a market featuring more than 30 local artists, makers, and food vendors this Sat., July 27 from 12-6 p.m.
Located at the intersection of Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. and Humphries St. SW, the mural festival has grown in just a few short weeks to transform the face of three buildings. The festival was organized by local artists Dosa Kim and Chris Wright who intend to celebrate Atlanta’s diverse mural art scene in a dense, urban setting.
Credit: Isadora Pennington
Credit: Isadora Pennington
ACMF got its start when Will Lawless, founder and board chair of eyedrum, connected Wright with local landlord Lou Holtz.
The walls of the building along Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. had been painted more than a decade prior as part of a Living Walls. When Holtz, a longtime art supporter, met Wright, he agreed that it was time for a fresh coat of paint on the building. Wright looped in Dosa Kim, organizer of local art collective High Contrast, and the two set to work imagining a mural festival in the neighborhood.
The site of ACMF is situated between the Adair Park, Pittsburgh, and Mechanicsville neighborhoods of southwest Atlanta. Wright said in a statement that he and Kim want to “revitalize the area and have a lot of murals condensed in one walkable space.”
In planning this festival, Wright and Kim gave a nod to other mural festivals that have paved the way for Atlanta’s rise to the global spotlight for muralists.
Living Walls, Forward Warrior, and the Outerspace Project are just a few of the existing mural festivals that have helped put the city on the map. They also talked about the city’s legacy with style writing, and were conscientious about thoughtfully fusing these two distinct street art styles when conceptualizing their festival.
Today, the ACMF crew is shining a light on emerging artists and beautifying a community through accessible art.
Credit: Isadora Pennington
Credit: Isadora Pennington
The festival is a grassroots artist-led effort that is supported by art shops including Beatlab and Sam Flax who have contributed paint. The ACMF staff are currently on the lookout for volunteers and financial contributions to help bring this larger-than-life idea to fruition.
“In the age of digital art, this is the one thing you can’t download,” said Kim. “Ultimately the mural is a very good barometer, or a measurement, of how dedicated the artists are to the craft.”
Their goal is to make this an annual celebration of street art. Originally, they thought they’d get 20 artists and it has increased to a lineup of a whopping 50-60 artists today.
Wright explained how some of the magic he experienced in Castleberry Hill during Flux years back has inspired him to expand upon the mural festival concept even more. “I miss those days a lot,” he told me.
“I don’t think a lot of people know the historical significance of this area,” said Kim, who wants to ensure there’s historical context for the ways that the neighborhood has evolved since it was a hub for railroad crossings.
“Crossroads is such a perfect name, we have all these different types of artists and styles meeting up in one place in Atlanta. It’s almost poetic– it really is– on a creative front,” Kim said.
Credit: Isadora Pennington
Credit: Isadora Pennington
“Here we have been able to get something together in two months,” explained Judie Levy, commending Wright and Kim on their efforts to get to this point.
“Between their energy to work long days and artists being invested, jumping on board, and even neighbors hopping into help, it’s kind of amazing the scale at which we’ve been able to pull this together in such a short amount of time.”
The festival is free and open to the public.
Credit: Rough Draft Atlanta
Credit: Rough Draft Atlanta
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