Welcome to the MuralsDC Blog!
Greetings from MuralsDC and welcome to our new blog. We hope this message finds you well during these unprecedented times.
While this time period will be filled with many challenges, we know it also will bring new and exciting opportunities. Unfortunately, MuralsDC, which is funded by the Department of Public Works (DPW), had to suspend its 2020 (for the superstitious, this would’ve been our 13th cycle 😉) season due to the ongoing health emergency and its impact on the District government’s operations and budget. But we hope this will provide us with a new opportunity to engage with all of you throughout the season and to collect valuable feedback and ideas for 2021.
DPW remains committed to our mission of beautifying Washington, DC’s corridors and providing opportunities to local artists to help us achieve that goal.
We thank all of the artists and property owners who applied to be a part of the 2020 season. We look forward to seeing the work we began with you in fiscal year 2020 manifest in 2021.
MuralsDC Kicked Off 2019 with Fellowship and Celebration
We’re still celebrating the success of MuralsDC’s 2019 season after completing six projects last fall in wards 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7 and snagging more than 20 media hits in news outlets across the country.
MuralsDC kicked off with a welcome breakfast for 2019 artists Kaliq Crosby, Federico Frum, Joe Pagac, Eric B. Ricks, Cita Sadeli and Aniekan Udofia at Busboys & Poets in Shaw. Since most of the p
rogram’s artists work individually on their projects, they rarely have an opportunity to connect. The breakfast gave those who were able to attend a chance to meet new muralists and/or reconnect with those they already knew.
Pagac’s mural, “The Wailin’ Mailman” at the intersection of 14th & U was the first mural project to be complete and served as the anchor for its kick-off event. Standing more than 70 feet tall, the mural depicts DC area jazz great Roger Wendell “Buck” Hill and is the tallest portrait mural in the nation’s capital. The historic 14th & U Street corridor, known as “Black Broadway” in the 1940s and ‘50s, was a major venue for many jazz greats of the day, including Duke Ellington and Hill, who passed away in 2017.
MuralsDC unveiled the historic mural during a August 28th press event, which was covered by every local television station. Pagac, the only 2019 MuralsDC artist not from the Washington, DC area, also had his work featured on the front page of the Arizona Daily Star, the largest newspaper serving his hometown of Tucson, AZ.
A Snapshot of 2019 Artists and Work
While Joe Pagac’s “Wailin Mailman” located at 1925 14th Street, NW, created local history by becoming the city’s tallest portrait mural, he wasn’t the only MuralsDC artist whose amazing work made headlines in 2019:
Kaliq Crosby’s mural, located on the retaining wall connected to Park Market (3400 13th Street, NW), replaced a previous mural painted by Alicia Cosnahan in 2009. Featuring the calla lily—the national flower of Ethiopia—it pays homage to the neighborhood’s many Ethiopian residents and businesses.
Eric B. Ricks’ color kaleidoscope featuring writer-poet Maya Angelou and her words: “If You Are Always Trying to Be Normal, You will Never Know How Amazing You Can Be” brought the very first mural to the Benning and Marshall Heights neighborhood and is the only mural visible along that stretch of East Capitol Street. Ricks and his mural were featured as a Washingtonian Photo of the Day on October 3 (Joe Pagac’s Buck Hill mural made the Washingtonian Photo of the Day the previous month). The wall was donated by the Maya Angelou Public Charter School.
Federico Frum’s mural at DPW’s Fleet Maintenance campus, “Benito Los Pasos” (Blessed Steps) is the first MuralsDC mural painted in Ivy City as well as the first to be featured on a DPW building. It’s intricate tribal design of white, black and gold infused symbols of the work of the agency while providing some much need art along West Virginia Avenue’s commercial corridor.
Cita Sadeli had a captive audience during the painting of her vibrant mural in the alley off of Kennedy Street in Ward 4. The mural, at 102 Kennedy Street, NW, is located across from a daycare center and watching Sadeli’s mural being painted every day was an inspiration for both the artist and the pint-sized spectators
Aniekan Udofia’s meditation mural “Namaste,” located across from the convention center, brought MuralsDC back to the downtown area. MuralsDC’s first Ward 2 mural, located one block away, was painted over last year. The mural is featured on the second story wall of Wagtime DC at 1232 Ninth Street, NW.
Black Lives Matter, MuralsDC & the Making of History
We may have stepped away from our blogging for a while but the painting never stopped. Even during a year that saw an initial pause in operations due to the ongoing health emergency and its impact on the District government’s operations and budget (for the superstitious, this is our 13th season so go figure 😉), MuralsDC managed to pull off the world’s first “Black Lives Matters” blocks-long mural.
MuralsDC’s Black Lives Matter mural project came together in under 24 hours. Led by some of the city’s top muralists, the 16 letters reach 40-feet high and spanned 580 feet. The artists met on June 5, hours before dawn at 3am. The rain had just stopped and the ground was wet so DPW employees, led by DPW Director Chris Geldart, pulled out leaf blowers to dry the pavement they had used mechanical sweeper to clean just hours before. After the artists did their calculations, took their measurements and did their prep work, they went to work.
DPW crews, other DC government employees, DC residents and demonstrators came together to help with the fill in work. Everyone wanted to be a part of such an historic moment. Workers and artists wrapped up just in time for the Mayor’s presser, during which she announced that the two-block stretch of road (the 800 and 900 blocks of 16th street, NW) where the mural now lives permanently was being renamed to “Black Lives Matters Plaza.”
We don’t know what the rest of the MuralsDC season will bring but we know it will continue to bring new and exciting opportunities. DPW remains committed to our mission of beautifying Washington, DC’s corridors and providing opportunities to local artists to help us achieve that goal.
We thank all of the artists and property owners who applied to be a part of the 2020 season. If we don’t get a chance to work with you this year, we look forward to seeing the work we began with you in fiscal year 2020 manifest in 2021!
MuralsDC Celebrates the District’s Historic Statehood Vote with 51 New Murals
Looking for something to do this weekend? Why not go on a scavenger hunt and check out DC’s 51 murals in support of statehood. DPW’s MuralsDC program completed 51 murals in a week, beginning on Juneteenth (June 19), leading up to the District’s first statehood vote in over 20 years on June 26. MuralsDC reached out to local businesses and government agencies and identified over a dozen walls so artists paint murals promoting messages of statehood, social justice and human rights in every ward of the city. To achieve the herculean feat of completing 51 projects in seven days, most walls were painted with multiple murals, turning several alleys into walkthrough art galleries. Get the location for each and check them all out in person or virtually by visiting: https://www.dropbox.com/s/poi36spn76tqjgn/51%20Murals_v5.6%20fix.mp4?dl=0
MuralsDC Kicked Off 2019 with Fellowship and Celebration
We’re still buzzing from the success of MuralsDC’s 2019 season after completing six projects last fall in wards 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7 and snagging more than 20 media hits in news outlets across the country.
MuralsDC kicked off with a welcome breakfast for 2019 artists Kaliq Crosby, Federico Frum, Joe Pagac, Eric B. Ricks, Cita Sadeli and Aniekan Udofia at Busboys & Poets in Shaw. Since most of the program’s artists work individually on their projects, they rarely have an opportunity to connect. The breakfast gave those who were able to attend a chance to meet new muralists and/or reconnect with those they already knew.
Pagac’s mural, “The Wailin’ Mailman” at the intersection of 14th & U was the first mural project to be complete and served as the anchor for its kick-off event. Standing more than 70 feet tall, the mural depicts DC area jazz great Roger Wendell “Buck” Hill and is the tallest portrait mural in the nation’s capital. The historic 14th & U Street corridor, known as “Black Broadway” in the 1940s and ‘50s, was a major venue for many jazz greats of the day, including Duke Ellington and Hill, who passed away in 2017.
MuralsDC unveiled the historic mural during a August 28th press event, which was covered by every local television station. Pagac, the only 2019 MuralsDC artist not from the Washington, DC area, also had his work featured on the front page of the Arizona Daily Star, the largest newspaper serving his hometown of Tucson, AZ.
MuralsDC Hopped on the DC Circulator for Unique Mural Tour
To celebrate the six murals painted in 2019, MuralsDC teamed up with the District Department of Transportation and the DC Circulator bus for a first-of-its-kind MuralsDC tour last fall. The 45-seat bus was packed with artists, representatives from the tourism community—like Cultural Tourism and Destination DC, art curators from the Smithsonian—members of the media and other guests.
The Circulator was unlike any mural tour the District has ever experienced, complete with a tour guide to provide historical tidbits on the neighborhoods they passed through. It was also perhaps the only mural tour to include the muralists whose works were being featured giving passengers the rare treat of hearing the artists discuss their process. The tour of all six 2019 murals also included its own music playlist, featuring songs the artists said best expressed the mood of their murals.
“It was awesome to celebrate with all of the artists and connect with the MuralsDC team,” said Cita Sadeli, who chose the song “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” to celebrate her mural “She Smiles 100 Suns.”
Property owners held special celebrations for their walls at each stop, including a special dedication at Aneikan Udofia’s mural “Meditation DC,” during which Shaw Mainstreets Executive Director Alexander Padro released several butterflies into the air.
The bus departed from and returned to the Reeves Center at 14th & U, where the Department of Public Works is headquartered.
