Richmond’s art scene has exploded in the last few years, but a new project from the folks who brought you the RVA Street Art Festival has it’s sights set on something huge, and everyone who comes to RVA will be able to see it.
Richmond’s art scene has exploded in the last few years, but a new project from the folks who brought you the RVA Street Art Festival has it’s sights set on something huge, and everyone who comes to RVA will be able to see it.
Local street artist Mickael Broth is known around Richmond for a lot of reasons, be it his giant murals around town, his role in getting the RVA Street Art Festival off the ground, his book about his time in jail on graffiti-related charges, or his gallery work, he has been a prominent member of the Richmond street art scene since it first took off.
His illustrative (almost cartoony) line work and occasional collage-effect with layered materials makes his work immediately recognizable.
The street artist has now come up with a way to beautify the gateways to Richmond. The project is called Welcoming Walls, and is a plan to place murals by local street artists on the walls closest to the highway. This way, tourists and passerby will see them as they enter the city for the first time. “Like with most big changes and most big ideas, it has to come not from the city; not from the government, but from people being like ‘Let’s do this,’” said Broth.
The city has spoken about doing something along these lines for the past few years but no moves have been made as of yet, according to Broth. But this new plan will provide RVA locals, as well as those on their way through town, with some fresh art.
“The city is full of public art and music and creativity and all this great energy,” said Broth. “But if you’re just passing through, you never have a clue.”
Welcoming Walls has been in the back of Broth’s mind for the past couple of years. Having been a street artist since the term was invented seven or eight years ago, Broth has been involved in the movement since street artists were seen as more of an identity and mural work became less about sign painting.
Before he became a street artist, Broth did graffiti on the sides of highways, which lead to his eventual incarceration.
The idea for Welcoming Walls came out of his involvement with graffiti. When Broth was 15, he was interested in painted spots along the highway with big bold letters to be seen by thousands of people. After he did jail time and put his graffiti days to rest, Broth was still looking at the spots along the highway and thinking about how promising they looked as a medium.
He then began brainstorming how the often-blank industrial walls could be painted in a way the community could actually appreciate it.
After the Second Street Art Festival snowballed into an enormous event, Broth found the encouragement he needed to pursue his idea.
“All the community mural stuff that happened over the past couple years made me think, ‘Hey, it’s possible,’” said Broth.
Since then, a tentative list of artists to-be-included in the project, a plan for funding for the project, and a plan for the first wall to be painted have come into being.
Chris Milk and his collaborator, Andre Shank, were the first two artsits identified as participants in Welcoming Walls. They two muralists are putting the finishing touches on a a wall along the off ramp from I-95 north heading into RVA’s Northside as we speak.
Broth has already spoken with a few other artists and said he is open to taking submissions, but the choices will be a matter of pairing the right people with the right sites.
Welcoming Walls will include primarily local artists but Broth says he is not opposed to bringing in people from outside of the city so long as they come with the understanding that they are creating the face of the city.
To that end, Broth has formed a partnership with Valentine Richmond History Center, so before any of the murals get painted, the artists will get a behind the scenes tour of the archive.
“Hopefully they will be able to find some sort of inspiration; maybe a composition from something. It’ll help tie in Richmond history without beating anyone over the head with it,” said Broth.
The last part of the puzzle for Broth is the funding for the project. He’s got his eyes on funding from HandsOn Greater Richmond, an organization most muralists in Richmond have worked with in the past that brings together local corporations and volunteer groups to fund street art.
Volunteers have the opportunity to help prime walls or help with blocking in color on the first day as a way to deplete costs and help with efficiency.
Broth is also considering a Kickstarter route and is looking for other funding options.
In terms of timeline, the first benchmark Broth hopes to make is ten large-scale projects completed before the UCI Road World Championships next year. Though the project is planned to be longer term, Broth sees this as an attainable first step.
Head on over to the Welcoming Walls website for more info.
