We had an amazing time this year at the Great Mountain Mega Mural Fest this year!
If you missed it this year; be sure to come check it out next year!
If you missed it this year; be sure to come check it out next year!
Check out some highlights from the 2019 Great Mega Mountain Mural Fest!
The Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College Appalachian Program hosted The 2nd Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest in Harlan, Kentucky June 20-23, 2019.
The Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest is a gathering of artists, teachers, students, and creative placemakers interested in learning how to:
The Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest is a place for
Participants in The Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest will find themselves in a gathering of people deeply involved and invested in expanding the role of art and artists in community development and local economies.
Program for the 2019 Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest
The Mountain Mural Mega Fest began on Thursday June 20th and end at noon on Sunday June 23rd. Most of the workshops will take place on the Harlan campus of Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College, with field projects in downtown Harlan.
Among the topics covered at Mural Fest will be:
The Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest is a gathering of artists, teachers, students, and creative placemakers interested in learning how to:
- Create enduring outdoor, large scale murals;
- Work with property owners and local governments to make public art happen;
- Engage schools, youth, and other community members in the design and creation of public murals; and
- Integrate the creation of murals into larger plans for community development and creative placemaking.
The Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest is a place for
- Visual artists who have never made an outdoor mural to learn the technical skills involved from veteran mural artists;
- People with all levels of experience in mural making to be with one another to trade ideas and experiences and plan future work; and
- Current and future mural makers to engage with experts in other aspects of public art making beyond the art itself—areas like fundraising, working with local government, and community organizations—and connect with national creative placemaking organizations and practitioners.
Participants in The Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest will find themselves in a gathering of people deeply involved and invested in expanding the role of art and artists in community development and local economies.
Program for the 2019 Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest
The Mountain Mural Mega Fest began on Thursday June 20th and end at noon on Sunday June 23rd. Most of the workshops will take place on the Harlan campus of Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College, with field projects in downtown Harlan.
Among the topics covered at Mural Fest will be:
- Intro to Public Art, Murals as Placemakers
- Public Art, Placemaking, and Community Engagement
- How to Design a Large Scale Mural
- Materials in Mural Making
- How to Plot Out a Mural for a Wall
- Tips and Tricks for Painting and Finishing a Mural
- The Business Side of Being a Muralist
Murals by Hitnes, Sanbasilio, Rome.
Participants will work with professional artists to create murals in Harlan County during Mural Fest. One of our scheduled guest participants will be Hitnes, an artist who lives in Rome, Italy and has created public art throughout the United States and elsewhere. Mural Fest participants will collaborate with Hitnes to produce a mural during the workshop.
2018 Mural Fest particiants, Harlan County Kentucky
Here in Harlan, the festival builds on last year’s successful mural fest, which resulted in the creation of a large-scale mural in collaboration with GoodSpace Murals of Minneapolis. Thirty regional artists and creative placemakers worked side-by-side with GoodSpace to create the mural. Prior to last year’s festival, the SKCTC Appalachian Program held six months of open community meetings during 2017-2018 about what people want to see in their murals here.
Finished mural completed by 2018 Mural Fest participants
Harlan mural work continues to focus on local flora and fauna—as we are located in one of the richest, most biodiverse forests in North America, and would like to promote eco-tourism.
Registration & Scholarships
REGISTRATION
Scholarships covering lodging, food, and registration are available each year. Applications for the scholarship are embedded into the registration links. All conference attendees should consider applying for a scholarship!
For more information, contact Robert Gipe at [email protected] or 606-620-3913.
Support for the Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest comes from the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Appalachian Impact Fund, the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, Berea College’s Partners for Education.
The Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College Appalachian Program is the host organization for the Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest. The SKCTC Appalachian Program is the home of other great projects like:
Registration & Scholarships
REGISTRATION
Scholarships covering lodging, food, and registration are available each year. Applications for the scholarship are embedded into the registration links. All conference attendees should consider applying for a scholarship!
For more information, contact Robert Gipe at [email protected] or 606-620-3913.
Support for the Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest comes from the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Appalachian Impact Fund, the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, Berea College’s Partners for Education.
The Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College Appalachian Program is the host organization for the Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest. The SKCTC Appalachian Program is the home of other great projects like:
- Higher Ground, a community performance project that creates original musical drama out of the stories, challenges, and strength of the people of Harlan County, Kentucky;
- It’s Good To Be Young in the Mountains (IG2BYITM), a series of conferences run by youth in the mountains;
- Hurricane Gap Community Theater Institute, which brings communities working on oral history-based, community-driven theater projects together with a national array of theater artists and arts organizers to strengthen the bond between art and communities;
- The Southeast Kentucky Revitalization Project, which coordinates workforce development and training in job skills that support community development, including construction trades related to building renovation, hospitality, and design, and includes a branding campaign.
PRESS FROM 2018 MURAL FEST
"It was a simple task in theory, yet one that took hundreds of local and visiting artists much of the summer to complete — capturing Harlan County’s beauty in one mural on the side of Buff’s Bows and Gifts in downtown Cumberland."- Harlan Enterprise September 2018 |
Cumberland mural a community effort-Harlan Enterprise
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"Bringing life back to downtowns that have lost jobs and businesses is a tall task. Not to be daunted, several groups are coming together to organize projects in Cumberland and Harlan; projects that revitalize the areas and offer workforce training at the same time." -WYMT |
'Mountain Mural Fest' brings life to downtown Cumberland-WYMT
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"In the second piece we learn about the first ever Great Mountain Mega Mural Festheld in Harlan County, KY the first weekend in August. The event brought together local, regional, and national artists, community planners, activists, and citizens to create a collaborative mural on a building in Cumberland, KY. The event was hosted by the Southeast KY Revitalization Project based at the Godbey Appalachian Center of Southeast KY Community and Technical College. Muralists from Minneapolis, MN based Good Space Murals led the painting process."-WMMT.ORG |
Mtn. News: Investing in Ourselves-WMMT.ORG
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