A wall-like structure is materializing around what has long been a glaring vacant block on North Fremont between Williams and Vancouver. It’s not the kind of wall you would expect. There’s no barbed wire fence or unfinished plywood mounted here to prevent loitering or other unwanted activity. Wrapping around the corner of Williams and Fremont are shoulder-high panels depicting a vibrant spectrum of images, ranging from colorful cityscapes, graffiti-inspired neighborhood portraits, fantastical sea creatures, a winged heart flying across a brilliant blue sky and an East-meets-West depiction of a dragon targeted by a bow-wielding cherub.
Economic Opportunity and Neighborhood Prosperity
This emerging art wall is appearing piece by piece as each week new 4 by 8 foot panels painted by local artists are erected along the property’s border. The beginning stage of the Mississippi Mural Project, this outdoor art installation is inspired and fueled by the shared vision of stonemason and recent City Council candidate Spencer Burton and artist/activist Rahsaan Muhammad. The murals, each painted by a different artist, are the pieces of what they envision as a “Magic Box” to bring attention to the newly-established Boise-Eliot Outdoor Market, provide exposure and income to local artists and raise funds for a neighborhood mural project.
Bordered by three main thoroughfares, the Boise-Eliot Outdoor Market sits at the Southern border of the Boise Neighborhood. The Market takes place on the property each Tuesday and Saturday until early October and focuses on local vendors selling local goods. It is the centerpiece of a grassroots community effort to transform blighted properties into a space that brings neighbors together and provides an economic opportunity for artists, urban farmers and neighborhood residents.
Plywood panels, which were donated by the ReBuilding Center, are provided to artists to create murals for the market that will eventually be auctioned with half the proceeds going to the artist and half to the Market. The Market will invest half its share to The Mississippi Mural Project, which will commission artists to work with neighborhood residents to create murals on buildings that are prime targets for graffiti tagging.
The group has their sights on a City Maintenance Building, and if negotiations with the City go well, they hope to launch their first mural project in the spring or summer of 2011. Meanwhile, the murals panels are being mounted along Williams, Fremont and Vancouver, as a semi-permanent installation, trusting the neighborhood to care for these artworks until they are auctioned this fall.
A Dream Becomes Reality, Gains Momentum
Burton and Mohammad’s dream, which is shared by the property owner, Ben Kaiser, is to soon transform this block into a year-round open market with a constant border made up of murals that will rotate out as they are auctioned. When asked if he worried about the murals getting tagged, Burton replied that he believes that most people who do graffiti respect other people’s art work enough not to tag it.
Even though she has seen murals that have been tagged, artist Taloah Bain is not worried about leaving her mural in the hands of the public: “I think putting murals up to deter graffiti is a good idea. I've seen murals tagged before, but it does seem to make some people reconsider the act.” For Bain, sharing her work is worth the risk: “It is very fulfilling to pass by something enjoyed daily by the public that you've helped to create.”
While the Market is still in its fledgling stages, it has swiftly gotten the attention of community supporters and local media. The Market is currently supported with significant help from the Boise and Eliot neighborhood associations, and Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, Working Artists Network, as well as the property’s owner, Ben Kaiser and adjacent business owners Kenneth Doswell of Betty Jean Couture and La Von Van of Club Twelve 22. In August, the market was featured in three Portland publications—the Skanner, Portland Observer, and Oregonian—as well as on KBOO Community Radio’s Talk Radio.
There’s no question that this outdoor market is being watched, seen by some as an experiment that, if all goes well, can serve as a model for an alternative way of developing Portland’s neighborhoods. However, as Oregonian reporter Larry Bingham pointed out in his August 27 feature, the market’s future depends on whether or not it can grab the attention of the passing auto and bicycle traffic.
This is just what the market’s “Magic Box” is intended to do. The art panels are creating a boundary that compels people to pause at this once-desolate space and wonder about what it now holds as well as the potential for what the space could become.
“I think that once the lot has all the murals up that the space will be very visually stimulating and will draw people in,” says Bain, who created a mural of a winged heart against a blue sky for one of the panels. Bain is excited about the new marketplace’s potential. “Portlanders are great about taking creative freedom and making an event or venue flourish,” she says, “The space could become something unique to the neighborhood that people travel from other parts of town to see.”
Healing Blighted Properties with Art
The Boise-Eliot Market is as much about supporting local artists with opportunities to get their art out in the community on a larger scale as it is about providing neighborhood residents and the artists with the opportunity to buy and sell their arts and goods in an open market. With the Mississippi Mural Project, Burton hopes to provide an example for how art can be used “to heal blighted properties.” The artists come in first, and the rest will follow.
Bain, who once lived four blocks from the market’s location, feels that, especially in this time when the Boise neighborhood is undergoing immense changes, that “creating outlets for emerging artists and vendors will keep vitality in the neighborhood.”
That’s why Burton enlisted Adrienne Fritze of the Working Artist Network (WAN), who serves as an artist liason and web/social media manager for the project. Fritze sees the Boise-Eliot Market and its mural project as a great way to fulfill WAN’s mission locally, which is “to provide business tools, resources and opportunities for Portland artists to get their work to market and create sustainable careers.”
Burton, who lives a few blocks from the property, sees building an art-enclosed open market as a way to “create synergy in the community by building a gateway into the neighborhood.” At the time of our interview, nine murals had already been installed, four were being mounted that day, and fourteen artists interested in painting a panel had contacted him the past week.
Alex Minton, an artist who was born in Northeast Portland, created a panel depicting an octopus and crabs on a bright blue background. He thinks the Mural Project is a great idea. “I love that they support art,” he says, “I love to be supported as an individual artist thriving without any one above me but with tons of people all around me.”
For Laura Nothern, who is usually “an isolated easel painter,” the mural project provided her with a larger canvas and the opportunity to connect with a bigger community. “I loved the feelings of expansion and creative freedom this opportunity provided,” she says.
Her panel, entitled “Death of a Dragon,” was inspired by the wood grain of the plywood panel, which reminded her of the texture of Japanese woodblock prints. Nothern, like many of the artists involved, sees great potential in the Mississippi Mural Project. “I hope this project leads to more opportunities for artists to transform and enhance our city by creating more public art throughout Portland,” she says, “hopefully providing some much needed color and care in depressed places, to maybe ease our dreary winter months, lift our rainy spirits, and brighten our everyday experiences.”
Artists can get involved by contacting Burton, who talks to them about the project and gets an idea of their vision. Burton has no desire to dictate what artists create for the market. The only stipulation is to keep it positive. Artists are asked to create panels that are uplifting, colorful, and vibrant to bring out the love and light of the community. “The market looks and feels like the neighborhood,” Burton says, “We’re taking on a piece of property and trying to reclaim it. Not from the point of view of developers, but from activists and artists.”
To get involved in the Mississippi Mural Project, contact Spencer Burton boiseeliotmarkets@gmail.com or 503.803.2699. To learn more about the project and the Boise-Eliot Outdoor Market, visit the web site: www.boise-eliotmarkets.com/
