RiNo (River North) Art District in Denver, Colorado, recently hosted an annual mural festival called Denver Walls. The festival saw several large-scale mural projects undertaken by several international artists such as James Bullough, Kimchi Juice and George F. Baker III, who added an eclectic body of art to the already creatively rich district. Denver Walls comes under the umbrella of “World Wide Walls”, an internationally acclaimed street art event series, spread across 19 cities including Honolulu, Seoul, Washington DC, Tokyo, and more. The Denver edition was spearheaded by Ally Grimm, the director of the festival, and Charity Von Guinness, the executive director of RiNo Art District.

Von Guinness joins STIR to discuss the festival’s curatorial strategy and significance. However, to understand Denver Walls, one must first understand Denver’s rich street art history. Von Guinness sheds light on this, telling STIR, “Denver's tryst with street art dates back to the 1960s and 1970s when Chicano artists began painting murals in the city's La Alma-Lincoln Park neighbourhood. These murals depicted Chicano culture and history, and they helped to create a sense of community in the neighbourhood. The 1980s and 1990s saw the rise of graffiti writing, which formed a critical foundation for what we refer to as street art now. This form of art was often seen as vandalism due to it being illegal in most states. But its importance in those decades and now as one of the five pillars of hip-hop culture continues to be an important entry point for many well-known artists.”

The early 2000s brought a push from artists and community groups to legalise mural art in the city, and Von Guinness mentions that RiNo Art District played an important role in this effort, and that the district has since come to be a locus for a great deal of Denver’s thriving street art scene. However, certain abstract and ad-hoc forms such as graffiti art are still illegal, as opposed to mural art for example, which is usually commissioned, representational and has gained widespread acceptance.

Coming to the curatorial strategy behind Denver Walls, Von Guinness says, “When contemplating the artists and the array of events Denver Walls wanted to encompass, the aim was to bring together a rich mixture of people from diverse backgrounds in the pursuit of introducing Denverites to new ideas and artistic styles less commonly found in our community.” Since Denver is already home to a thriving street art scene, RiNo Art District and Denver Walls felt that it was equally important to shine a spotlight on local talent such as Detour, alongside international artists from across the globe, including James Bullough from Germany, Dulk from Spain, and Keya Tama from South Africa.

The team behind the art festival also wished to offer audiences a new dimension to engage with street art, and so every mural that was painted during the festival is accompanied by a metal plaque bearing a QR code, which allows audiences to learn more about the street artist, engage with them on social media, and view a map of the murals spread out across RiNo. Additionally, each of these plaques carries a transmitter, enabling audiences to mark their visit to the site (and access the same information shared via QR code).

Beyond the festival itself, Denver Walls has also fostered the Young Creators Programme, in keeping with Worldwide Walls’ continued commitment towards “empowering local communities through youth programming and scholarship opportunities,” Von Guinness tells STIR. “Understanding the power these programmes provide, Denver Walls formed the Young Creators Programme to inspire and educate the next generation of great artists in Denver. This year, the festival partnered with School of Motion and Canvas Credit Union to award select local high school students scholarships to access School of Motion’s online catalogue of design courses taught by industry professionals, and a stipend to give them access to software like Cinema 4D and the Adobe Suite so young artists are able to explore their creativity and turn their artistic hobbies into a career," she adds.

The Young Creators Programme joins several other community and government-led arts development initiatives in Denver such as the Mural Grant Programme that has been running since 2014 and RiNo’s own Mural Programme. Von Guinness ends her interview with STIR reaffirming RiNo Art District and Denver Walls' support for the mural artist and graffiti writer communities and mentions that the teams are working hard to increase access and education around the interwoven history of street art and the Denver community.

Denver Walls was on view from September 22 to October 3, 2023.