Atlanta Living Walls Conference


Jaz

Its been a while since the event but I had a throughly enjoyable and interesting time this August at the Atlanta Living Walls Conference. Now in its second year this grassroots festival is a celebration of street art with over 20 walls painted across the city by artists worldwide, including old friends such as Sam3, Escif and Labrona and artists I hadn’t met in person before such as the amazing Jaz from Argentina, Entes and Pesimo from Peru and Freddy Sam from South Africa.

Entes & Pesimo

I was very flattered to be invited as key note speaker to take part in some interesting debates which discussed the role of street art within public arts programmes. The conference included artists, public art organisers, workshop coordinators, community gardeners and many more to look at the wider picture.

Freddy Sam

The main venue for an accompanying exhibition, launch party and general hang-out was a place called the Goat farm – a complex of many old industrial buildings that are now being used for arts studios.

Goat Farm

One of the buildings which usually hosts a dance studio was the venue for our Pecha Kucha talks. This was the first time I’d done a Pecha Kucha before – the idea is that you have 20 slides and for each slide you speak for 20 seconds. The whole thing is automated so you have to speak fast – I’m not sure how well I did as I only prepared the night before. RJ from Vandalog and the American artist Gaia put on some stirling performances.

Feral Child

This is now my all time favourite Roa piece!

For more on Living Walls check out their website and Facebook page.


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