What color do you think of when you think of happiness? When you think of peace? Of love? All of those colors will brighten the City of Harrisburg this summer during Sprocket Mural Works’ 2019 Hbg Mural Fest.
Spanning throughout the city of Harrisburg, the 2019 Hbg Mural Fest will be a focused surge of city beautification through the creation of 10 murals in 10 days, running from August 30th to September 8th, 2019. This serves as a celebration of Harrisburg with the goal to inspire others, celebrate our region, and bring people together in collective creative action.
The 10 new pieces of public art will add to the rich arts and cultural offerings in the city. This follows upon the success of the 2017 Hbg Mural Fest, which led to the completion of 18 public art pieces created in a single week. It also builds upon the rich history of Harrisburg public art (with murals still visible today dating back to the 1970s). Painted by local, regional, national, and international artists these murals help accentuate the character of Harrisburg, provide unexpected surprises around street corners, and make commute and travel more interesting around the city.
2017 Mural Fest Example:
The Festival
Bringing more color and life to the region, the 2019 Hbg Mural Fest will feature more than paint on walls. In addition to creating a walkable mural tour starting at the train station in Downtown HBG and running deep into Midtown, there will also be several events throughout the 10 days.
The festival will begin with a kickoff party on August 30th featuring music and temporary art installations. The culmination of the festival will be a block party and celebration on September 8th featuring music performances, an artist market, and food trucks. Additionally, there will be artist meet and greets, talks on public art, and community paint days. Look for updates and information about events on Sprocket Mural Works' Facebook and Instagram pages.
Artists
Artists from all backgrounds and locations are invited to submit portfolios for consideration to be a part of the Hbg Mural Fest, in fact local, regional, national, and even international artists helped create the projects that currently exist around the city! Because Harrisburg is a culturally rich and diverse region we want to make sure that all voices are represented on the walls around the city.
If you, or someone you know is interested in participating in the festival, you can submit your portfolio of work through Sprocket Mural Works website.
Jessica Singer, an artist on a previous Sprocket Mural Works project said, “I had the time of my life. I enjoyed having people, as I was working on it, talking to me about it. I’m just very proud and honored to have a piece of artwork that is going to be there, and teach so many kids. I feel like they can look up to me and I say ‘Look! This is something you can aspire to. If art is your passion, follow it. You can do something like this.’”
Volunteers and Community Involvement
There are many opportunities to get involved and support the Hbg Mural Fest regardless of your artistic talents or interests.
Formed in 2014, Sprocket Mural Works is a volunteer run organization, focused on increasing community pride and civic engagement in Harrisburg through creative action. That means many volunteers are need to help execute the festival. In 2017 over 150 volunteers helped make the festival happen.
In 2019 Sprocket Mural Works will again need volunteers to help prep walls and locations for artists, help support artists during the creation process, lead community paint days, organize and execute events, and help clean and wrap up the festival. If you are interested in volunteering during the 2019 please submit a volunteer interest form.
Additionally, Sprocket Mural Works is looking for sponsorships and publicly visible walls to paint as part of the festival. To volunteer, support the project financially, or donate a wall to the project, fill out the form online.
“The most striking thing about the [2017] Harrisburg Mural Fest was the profound willingness of artists to invite an entire city to be a part of the process of creating art. It is brave, vulnerable, and sweet—and it is one thing to say that murals are tools for civic engagement; it is another to witness it on such a grand scale.” Danielle Lucas, photographer and general awesome person.
Look up and look around this summer as the 2019 Hbg Mural Fest adds the colors of happiness, joy, peace, and love throughout Harrisburg.