Manchester’s first Mural Festival happened after two years of planning

MANCHESTER, NH — The city’s first mural festival, August 11-22, 2022, the result of nearly two years of planning and building connections, has been guided by the vision of local Artist James Chase.  As an associate professor at the Art Institute of New England College, James brings curation, credibility and trust to a project that has added sparkle to the streets of downtown Manchester. He and co-producer Dominque Miller envisioned and have executed something beyond just visiting artists who “do stuff and depart.”

While people will mostly see the end result, James is keen on creating those conversational “in-betweens:” Ones that create and build together the community, the guest artists at work with local artists and neighbors.

Building “with” rather than “for” others, the festival is an opportunity to tell community stories through public art. Their #CommunityCanvas project is intended to amplify community voices rather than individual ones creating a focus on elevating the voices of all in the community.

You can listen to our Communicast conversation below via YouTube:

Community Canvas

Conversations and workshops took place with kids from the Boys and Girls Club of Manchester and folks from My Turn, a program for those seeking to earn their high school equivalency diplomas. The visiting artists, Amanda B Hill of Boston, David Maldonado of Houston Texas, and Alex Ferror of Portugal, are well-known professional muralists who came here to hear the stories of “What makes Manchester home?” and amplify those stories and sketches into murals.

Says James, “We’ve brought in some heavy-hitting muralists to collaborate with the community in a long-lasting impactful way. Every artist is working with three to four local emerging artists and training them to be the next wave.”

With more confidence in taking risks and branching out, the local artists have come to embrace the team’s saying “it’s just paint…it’s just a way of exploring” as they level up their skill set.

The power can be seen in the dialogue and conversations already sparked by random encounters with working artists, their mentees and the community at large. I heard it from downtown workers as they strode by on their way to lunch, then lingered for a moment to take in the changes. I saw it in the eager eyes of people in the shadows seeing ‘real art’ being brought to life – with permission – transforming drab brick and whitewash into brilliant bigger-than-life scenes based on the community conversations that took place long before a sketch was completed or brush, spray can and paint were applied to any wall. I saw it in the way James, Alex, Amanda and David took the time to listen and guide the local artists assisting in the creation of three larger-than-life murals.

Mentoring – is empowering. Local voices matter.

One of the clear messages from James, David, Amanda and Alex is to encourage professional risk-taking, that it is OK to try things outside of one’s comfort zone. The resulting murals were guided and influenced by the current Manchester community around whom the project has been built.

Here, everyone learned together.

Without a preconceived set of drawings to work from, the group needed to have conversations to determine what exactly would represent this place called home. They quickly found “home“ had very different meanings across the community conversations. For transplants to Manchester, food and culinary treats had big impact. Your mother’s or perhaps your grandmother’s kitchen. You can see the results below on the mural created by Amanda B Hill and her assistants.

Workshops were held looking at the concepts of identity and home. The question asked, “How do you represent yourself?” was the first conversation. Home looked like a physical place but through conversations, the artists and residents began talking about personal experiences of moving from place to place and a temporary connection to place. Those voices sparked statements like this one: “I don’t see myself reflected here.” Home became more a memory someone could carry around with them. Amanda Hill’s mural truly encapsulates what the process is about. The collaboration of voices coming together was something that James Chase characterized as something “you couldn’t just check off on a box and say this is what we are going to do.”

Engagement grew organically and exponentially from there.

Arts Build Community

Alex Ferror engaged in thoughtful conversations with Chloe Fox, Christian Rivera and Joe Dakin. They are former students now graduated and in our local work world but they spoke highly of what they learned from James back in the classroom. For this mural festival, they were the three creating something bright and engaging on the windows of the now-empty Lemays building on Elm Street. Alex was there to offer guidance and a sounding board rather than instruction.

James says, “Really proud that this whole idea came about because of so many different voices rising up. It is inspiring to see.”

Established muralists came to listen, to mentor and to create with community. Together Arts Build Community is bursting with excitement and pent-up desire to be seen and heard in positive ways. The next steps are already in the planning stages.

As James says, “ Art is not providing answers but providing conversations and different ways of questioning and thinking about the 10 days of experiences that are happening now. Our next program can be more in the line of experiences. It doesn’t have to be about murals.”

There are more ways of starting community conversations and awareness of place and self.

“There is so much opportunity for the next wave of what this is all about. “

Now it is your turn

You can donate to the program by buying some merch like this limited edition fully used spray can signed by all the guest artists.

Reach out to Arts Build Community  or James Chase and get involved.

Join in Saturday August 20 at the block party near the Pearl Street parking lot in downtown Manchester from 10 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Visit the city-wide Arts Festival September 12-18, 2022, where ABC will be joining The Palace Theatre, the Currier Museum, and dozens of local artists at tables and booths in the Opera Block.

Look for three artist tables sponsored by the Manchester Ink Link in conjunction with The Palace Theatre!

Manchester is indeed finding its artistic groove.