Murals to go up in north Minneapolis Saturday in new festival

NINA MOINI: Minneapolis will be home to eight new murals this weekend after the MPower Northside Arts Festival on Saturday. The festival will scatter local artists to paint murals at grocery stores, churches, and other businesses along the West Broadway corridor. Here to talk with me about the festival is a participating artist, Esther Osayande. Thank you very much for being here, Esther.

Oh, Esther, do we have Esther? Oh, I think I'm having a little trouble hearing Esther. So we'll try to get that sorted out. Also joining us, happy to have the festival organizer, Melodee Strong. Hi, Melodee.

MELODEE STRONG: Hi. How are you?

NINA MOINI: I'm great. Thank you so much. I think we'll try to get Esther's audio there, figure it out. But let me start with you, Melodee. Congratulations on this first year of this special Mural Arts festival. I understand you are a teacher and educator on the North side. Would you tell us a little bit about what brought you this idea of organizing this festival?

MELODEE STRONG: Yeah. Well, there's two reasons why I asked for this event. I actually received the funding for the event through the Cultural Districts Art Fund, through the Arts and Cultural Affairs Department of the city of Minneapolis. So I applied for this grant last year because I had conducted or facilitated a much smaller scale version of this a couple years ago, where we kind of came in and took over a vacant lot off of Plymouth Avenue, also in North Minneapolis.

And it was really small scale, real little, but I have a much bigger vision for it. So when I applied for the grant, it obviously is asking for a little bit more money than we had back then. But I also was influenced by a mural fest that was in Detroit, Michigan, that I had visited, and I really loved how it was conducted. And that's a week-long festival, which is what I hope to have in the future.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Why not?

MELODEE STRONG: One day. We're going to start baby steps with one day, and then we're going to move it maybe to two or three. And then hopefully get the week long, like they have in Detroit. But that's the backstory behind my idea. Yeah.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And I understand we have Esther back. Hi, Esther. Oh, I'm still having trouble hearing you. Sorry. But, well, I guess this is your time then, Melodee.

MELODEE STRONG: No problem.

NINA MOINI: I think murals are so beautiful. And I just wonder how are people experiencing this? Is it they're just walking down the street and they're running into different murals, or how is it going to work logistically?

MELODEE STRONG: Yeah. So we have four main areas along West Broadway between 94 and Fremont Avenue. The main areas are going to be at Swank Bar, which is formerly the 4th Street Saloon, Cub Foods Northside, Sanctuary Covenant Church, and then Minneapolis Public Schools Davis Center.

And the Minneapolis Public School area is actually going to have a community mural that's being conducted by Crystal, one of the artists-- one of the eight artists that will be participating in the event. So she'll be conducting the community mural there, which will eventually be installed at one of the Northside schools at Minneapolis Public Schools.

And then we have three artists that will be at Sanctuary painting live, one on a literal wall and two on a temporary makeshift wall, where the murals will be transferred to another location later. So Christopher Harrison is going to be working on his mural on canvas, which will eventually go to the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery because they actually sponsored him specifically.

And then the other artists, they're all being painting on aluminum panels, which will eventually be installed in various businesses on the Northside specifically.

NINA MOINI: Oh, cool. So they could be moved. Yeah, they could be moved. And so for our audience, I'm sorry, that we're not going to get Esther back, but we do appreciate her. We just have a few minutes left in the show. But the artists I am curious to from your perspective, do they like to be watched?

MELODEE STRONG: Well, I would hope so.

NINA MOINI: You know what I mean? Like, are they like, go away, I'm doing my mural? Or are they like, everybody, come look?

MELODEE STRONG: Yeah. I've worked with some of these artists before. So we're accustomed to working in public spaces. So we're used to answering questions and engaging with the community. I mean, that's beauty behind these events is that people are curious. So we are open to people asking us questions and things like that.

Yeah, we do have a deadline. We're trying to get these murals done by the end of the day. But we are very aware that we are in public spaces. We have a community that's very curious and interested to know what we're doing. And we know that we're going to have to engage with the community at some point during the day. And that's totally fine.

There are some newbies in the group that are learning as we go. And we're there to coach them. Nobody new as by themselves, they will have someone next to them that could help them out if they're curious about things. Yeah, I think that's the expectation. I mean, if we're working in public art, they kind of have we're going to be like a zoo. We're going to be watched.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And what are the different themes? Are folks picking those ahead of time? Are they coordinating with one another, or is it just kind of whatever they feel?

MELODEE STRONG: I mean, I always encourage the artists to do what they feel. Now, we do have some restrictions, like nothing about alcohol and drugs and negative themes. We want something uplifting, obviously. But these are going to property owners and business owners. So a lot of the business owners and property owners have been very open to what they want.

I mean, some of them were not specific, but just dropping some ideas for themes, like Black women empowerment or North side pride or something like that. So still very broad themes and very broad ideas. But the artists, I'm hoping, will fine tune and create something that's really meaningful to them and expresses something specific about them, because that's the whole point of it as well, is that I want the artists to have the freedom to create something that is meaningful to them as well.

NINA MOINI: Sure. What do you think is so special about murals, the way that they could change just the surrounding areas and engage people. I always find them to be so compelling. What are you hoping that people take away from walking through this experience?

MELODEE STRONG: Well, one advocacy for the arts, that's always my number one underlying objective is to expose people to how hard it is to make art and the process of making the art, so they learn to appreciate it because they're seeing it actually being done in front of them. But also, engaging with the artist to learn about the artist and where they get their ideas from, or how they choose their colors or things like that. And maybe that's the educator in me, my day job. That I might have something to do with it.

But also, it does beautify our neighborhoods. It expresses who we are. When murals are being created, especially by local artists, those local artists are actually communicating visually a story or a history or a theme or something that's meaningful to that community, especially artists of color. We are out there to represent what marginalized communities have lacked, they haven't been able to express themselves. So this is a wonderful way, I think, for communities to allow artists to do that.

NINA MOINI: Wonderful. Oh, I'm so happy for you, Melodee. Thank you for the idea and for executing it. And all the best this weekend. And tell Esther we're sorry we couldn't get her on.

MELODEE STRONG: I appreciate you trying.

NINA MOINI: Take care. All right. That was MPower Northside Arts Festival organizer, Melodee Strong.