Memphis Paint is a one-day festival on October 1, 2016 that will bring over 100 artists to Memphis to paint the flood wall adjacent to the proposed Chelsea Greenline. The wall starts at the Chelsea trailhead, at North Evergreen and Chelsea and goes west for .3 miles, There will be two volunteer organizers from Memphis and one from Nashville. We will coordinate publicity as well as organize events on the day of the event and afterwards for clean up. The Greenline Association will sponsor the event insurance. Clean Memphis will do a monthly sweep for trash. The Greenline Association and Memphis Paint will patrol for offensive work.
This event will not only bring attention to the Chelsea Greenline project and the New Chicago/North Midtown neighborhood, but will result in the largest collaborative mural in Memphis. We will ask artists to adhere to certain guidelines, including no profanity or profane/gang images, as well as designing their walls to demonstrate the theme of Revival. In addition, all Corps of Engineers flow wall numbers will be preserved.
Volunteers: email karen@paintmemphis.org
Artists: email karen@paintmemphis.org
This event will result in the painting of the south side of the Wolf River flood wall, but we propose to make this a permission wall, granting access and permanence to both sides of this wall. This would be the first city-sanctioned permission wall in Memphis, encouraging artists and Memphians to see this most public form of public art. As a rotating palette with guidelines painted onto one of the panels, this wall would set a precedent and move both this neighborhood and Memphis graffiti writers away from illegal and gang tagging to a canvas that showcases their talent. In addition, it would be an innovative way to bring in this neglected neighborhood into the city-wide initiative to see the improvements in art, sports, urban development, government, education, and spirit that are evolving.
If you would like to donate (yes, even small donations are welcome), here’s our ioby link: