EVENT: Wall-to-Wall, Winnipeg’s Mural and Culture Festival
Celebrate the power of art at Winnipeg’s annual Wall-to-Wall Mural & Culture Festival. From September 1-30, enjoy a variety of events including live music, workshops, and mural creations that tackle complex and important topics such as diversity, racism, and social consciousness.
IN YOUR BACKYARD
Street artists like Banksy or BLU are all a little far from home, but the use of murals and street art is very much present in Winnipeg. If you’re walking around West Broadway, West End, North End or The Forks and see a mural, it’s possible it was created as a part of Winnipeg’s annual mural festival.
From September 1-30, the Wall-to-Wall Mural and Culture Festival sees the creation of multiple indoor and outdoor murals across Winnipeg every year and celebrates each new work of art with unique events, its end coinciding with Culture Days and Nuit Blanche.
Aiming to create an environment of conversation, inclusivity, and socially-consciousness, Wall-to-Wall works through collaboration, mentorship, public participation, and celebration. In 2018, the festival is encouraging youth ages 12-28 to lead and contribute.
Just like street art around the world, pieces in Winnipeg seek to create a narrative through the viewer’s eyes, often tackling topics like diversity, pop culture, contemporary art, race, inequality, and more!
FESTIVAL FEATURES
The festival highlights the best of Winnipeg’s art, culture, and music scenes. Put on by the Synonym Art Consultation, workshops and events are free, often accessible to all ages, and range from being midday to after work/evening.
Synonym Art Consultation is a curatorial collective based in Winnipeg committed to providing meaningful employment and mentorship opportunities to artists and the facilitation of celebrating art and culture with unique, inclusive, community-minded events that serve as safer spaces for diverse populations.
“Through the Wall-to-Wall festival, SAC strives to cultivate a grassroots contemporary street art movement in Winnipeg and participate in hyperlocal and international dialogues around important issues, such as Indigenous rights and socially responsible, innovative economic development, rooted in the Arts.”
MARK YOUR CALENDARS, SOCIAL MEDIA, & MAPS
Find a map of murals on Wall-to-Wall’s website and discover street art all over Winnipeg.
Who: Toronto artist, Ness Lee
What: A free workshop open to people and artists of all experiences and backgrounds.
Where: The Forks, Winnipeg, MB.
When: Wednesday, September 19 – 5-7 PM
Why: Learn from a talented and experienced artist. Later in the week she will be joined by Jerry Rugg (BirdO) and local youth artists/mentees Bria Fernandez and Rene “Twio” Marriot to create a multi-leveled mural in The Forks parkade.
Facebook event
Who: Winnipeg artist, Kenneth Lavalee
What: The Star Blanket Project + Indigenous Street Art Activism Screening
Where: University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB.
When: Wednesday, September 26 – 12:30-3 PM
Why: The Star Blanket Project brings attention to missing and murdered Indigenous women. The screening will be followed by a panel discussing past and future, local and international, large-scale and grassroots examples of Indigenous street artworks and their ability to help open dialogues and to present alternative ways to interpret our cities and our experiences.
Facebook event
WINNIPEG MURALS
@k_sheppard.art & @annie_beach (2018) – Inuit Art Centre (source)
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