Rising Star Application- BRUSH Mural Fest
deadline August 1
Our mission at BRUSH Mural Fest is to cultivate community and show how resilient and vibrant Baltimore really is, while highlighting the talent and skills of the artists who live and work here.
There are several goals for this festival: (1) to be Baltimore City-focused; (2) to provide opportunities for muralists to showcase their artwork and have creative freedom; and (3) to advocate for the value of murals and provide education on how to run a mural business.
The producers of the festival, also known as The BRUSH Team, are all established Baltimore City-based muralists who have over 15 years combined experience painting all over the city and beyond. Jaz Erenberg, Saba Hamidi of MadeBySaba, and Jess Langley of White Coffee Creative, are coming together to host this festival in partnership with Southeast CDC and Highlandtown Arts District. Together, they are planning for 5 murals across all 4 Arts Districts in the city designed and painted by 5 teams of women and non-binary artists. One of the teams will consist of The BRUSH Team.
Additionally, we aim to use BRUSH Mural Fest as a platform to foster more advocacy, education, and transparency around the value of murals. Via a series of workshops, talks, and network events during BRUSH Mural Fest week, we hope to highlight a range of topics from understanding the craft itself, to pricing and investment, to the impact of murals as an artform, and the importance of ensuring that all muralists get paid their worth. As an added layer, we plan to create a report showing the breakdown of costs after the festival to promote more transparency around this topic.
Part of what makes this festival so unique is we are asking each lead artist (or team) to partner with a “Rising Star” – an emerging artist with 0-2 murals completed – to mentor them on the process of painting a mural from design to painting to the ins and outs of the business.