Black Love Mural Festival x CRUSH Walls 2020

BLMF x CRUSH The Black Love Mural Festival is the first all Black mural festival in the world, birthed in Denver, CO. A festival that started in the heart of downtown Denver has been invited to participate in CRUSH Walls, Colorado’s premier mural festival. HOW DOES MY DONATION HELP? Your donation creates a paid opportunity for a local Black artist to live out their dream of being featured in CRUSH Walls. Such as; purchasing materials including wood, screws, buff paint and spray cans. We’ll create temporary mural installation with 8 - 10 local black artist. WHAT IS CRUSH? CRUSH is an annual celebration of art, transforming the streets and alleys of RiNo into permanent, open-air galleries. CRUSH celebrates art, creativity, and culture by enriching our community through an arts festival like no other. We believe that public art leads to an improved community as a catalyst for safety, cleanliness, creativity, and conversation. Centered around empowering artists, CRUSH is committed to reflecting and diversifying the urban landscape and the unique voice of a community, bringing art out of the galleries and into the streets. The organization serves as a forum for community engagement and creative expression, inviting locals and visitors to engage in this rich history and forward-thinking public art in Denver, Colorado. CRUSH has brought a lot of resources & opportunities to RiNo, but it’s important that we don’t whitewash the historical Black neighborhood “Five Points” from our minds. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE BLACK ARTISTS IN CRUSH? Denver has been labeled the second-most gentrified city in the country. Five Points, specifically, has become "perhaps the model of gentrification across the nation," Brother Jeff says in a Westword article. That gentrification started decades ago, when black Denver residents who had been redlined into the area. Five Points started out as one of Denver's first streetcar suburbs turned it into a vibrant community in the ’20s and through the ’40s, full of black-owned businesses and dozens of clubs on Welton Street that drew top-notch entertainers. In 2002 Five Points was designated as a cultural historic district, in recognition of its important role in African-American history in the city. Cultures blend in historic Five Points, one of Denver's oldest and most diverse neighborhoods. The district was known as the "Harlem of the West" because it was a frequent stop for jazz greats including Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, who played clubs like the Rossonian and the Rainbow Room. The neighborhood was also mentioned repeatedly in Jack Kerouac's "On the Road." WHO IS INVOLVED? The Black Love Mural Festival is presented to you by IRL Art & Rob The Art Museum. Both businesses are Black owned and operated WHERE WILL THE ART BE LOCATED? The lot behind the Ramble Hotel (1280 25th St, Denver, CO 80205) WHEN CAN WE SEE THE ART? 9/14 - 9/20