Living Walls

Living Walls is a really cool project that I learned about shortly after our move to Atlanta a little more than a year ago. It’s one of the coolest non-​profit organizations I’ve come across in a while and I really love the different installments throughout the city. Their website (
) has a fantastic map with local pieces and artists plotted for easy locating.
I’m not one to communicate or debate the emotiveness intended through art, but I do think that the movement Living Walls brings to the public is a great one. Rather than people focusing on art on a public building or wall as an inherent negative, this group of artists and advocates have created a beautiful platform for artists to stretch their creative muscles and tons of memorable murals for the entire ATL community to become attached to. I love it.
If I had to choose my favorite piece, it’s most likely the guy with the giant beard in Cabbagetown (on the backside of the large walls of the railroad overpass). There are so many to take in and I love finding different installments around town. Such a cool part of our city.

Living Walls is a local non-​profit organization that has brought a lot of amazing and beautiful art to what otherwise would be drab and barren walls throughout Atlanta. The group’s unique and colorful murals can be found around the city, but mostly in downtown, Edgewood, Cabbagetown, Reynoldstown, and East Atlanta. I’ve also seen Living Walls on the BeltLine in Midtown and in Decatur. The art comes courtesy of some of the world’s most talented street artists.
This review is based mostly upon the Living Walls 2014 Main Event held at the Goat Farm last Saturday, August 16, 2014. As I understood it, the event was a five-​year anniversary celebration of Living Walls and the public art the group has put forth in the city. What better venue than the Goat Farm Arts Center to showcase some ambitious and extraordinary installations.
On-​site parking was limited. Charges were assessed based on how many people were in each vehicle. Solo drivers paid $ 6, two people in a car paid $ 4, and three or more people in a car paid only $ 2. Way to promote carpooling. We parked at Westside Provisions District and walked over.
There was a security checkpoint and donations were accepted at the door. A $ 5 per person donation was suggested. There was live music scheduled throughout the night (on two stages), but we missed the bands because we left before the shows started.
I’m an engineer, not an artist. I’m not an artsy person and it can often times be difficult for me to fully appreciate art. However, I thought pieces/​installations at the event were very cool. My favorites were the stack of old stereos, boomboxes, and speakers (photo:
) and the projection a man’s face against (what I think were) bays of hay, water, and grass (photo:
). The stereo installation actually worked and played music.
Another installation I liked was the shopping cart installation (photo:
). Very creative and original. Artists whose work was on display represented the following countries: USA, Spain, Italy, Peru, Germany, and Lithuania. Local artist David Baerwalde’s outdoor, three-​tiered, stacked filing cabinet installation at the Goat Farm is always neat to see too (photo:
). I like how it has plants growing in and around it.
Food trucks/​food stands were present at the event and included Good Food Truck, Doggy Dog, and King of Pops. There was a lot of security. The staff we interacted with at the check-​in/​donation table were friendly.

Love the Living Walls. I’ve been photographing many of them in the pre-​dawn morning (usually around 4 AM Sunday). They look different in the dark with deserted streets.

I watch for Living Walls all the time. It’s a wonder I haven’t wrecked.
Yahoo for them and their ballsy beautification.
Their stuff IS beautiful, while also making you think (or at least pause).
Kudos, Living Walls!

Mix in one part grafitt… sorry, street art, one part urban culture, and one part hipster bar/​restaurant scene and what do you get? Living Walls.
We joined the Living Walls tour team on a really nice, not too hot, Sat afternoon in June. As you probably know, days like that are rare in Atlanta in June but it was nice.
We enjoyed our guides explaining how the street art came to be in this area and the efforts behind Living Walls to expand the program and deal with local politics. We hope they continue their push to make it easier for artists to showcase their skills on giant wall canvases.
The street art was amazing! The efforts put into it range from intricately perfected designs to crazy, psychedelic patterns. We enjoyed them all and hope the program continues and continues to bring together the neighborhoods in which they exist.

As a lifelong supporter, participant and enthusiast of street art culture, I was just elated over the birth of Living Walls. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll add that I served as a volunteer artist’s assistant for the all female conference in 2012. I can certainly speak to it from that perspective, but this review is from the perspective of a tax-​paying, home-​owning Atlanta citizen.
This is exactly the kind of project and presence that energizes me about Atlanta. The DIY, scrappy spirit that I love about this city is reflected in this nonprofit’s genesis: a group of friends and art lovers thought it would be great to have more art in public spaces, to turn the city into a canvas and to bring international muralists to select slabs of concrete.
And then, they actually went and did it.
They’ve had some bumps along the road and have become intimately knowledgeable about Atlanta bureaucracy and controversy, but on the whole, they’ve ignited conversations about artists and audience, the value of art, class struggles, resourcefulness, uses and «ownership» of public space.
In addition to the important conversations, there’s just some really gorgeous art that makes (re)discovering Atlanta all the more enjoyable. Now all the usual modes of transportation — be it walking, biking or driving — have the additional delightful facet of them becoming a thought-​provoking, surprising or funny scavenger hunt. Folks are visiting neighborhoods they may have previously ignored. Business owners are offering up their walls for beautification. International artists are, like, coming to Atlanta and everything.
I love The High Museum (and art institutions, in general), but it simply could never produce this level of dialogue, accessibility and engagement between the general public and art.
5 fat capped aerosol stars

Living Walls shows you the difference between street art and graffiti. These amazing murals have definitely added to the value and nostalgia and love I feel for the city. Last year they brought all female artists. As a woman, and as a person who loves and respects other women, I think this is awesome. I’m so glad to see that they’ve become the success that they have, to invite artists from all over the world. I personally went on my own tour of the murals with a friend and her dog. It was great exercise and a lot of fun to check out the details that the artists put into the massive works.
I kept up with them on their website and was able to go to the block party this year in EAV. They had a mini tour set up. I wasn’t a big fan of the crochet’d bikes, but the murals were awesome, and so were the telephone booths. Our tour guide was a trooper and was great at telling us the story behind each work and artist.
I really love these paintings and I think they bring an excitement to our city and certainly brings an appreciation to our neighborhoods. Two thumbs up.

I second what Mary said – this is an amazing, thoroughly badass nonprofit that makes our city better in one of the most indelible ways possible: by giving it public art. Although that art is up and findable year round via the LW website, it’s hopping the weekend of the event, with bike and walking tours and viewings of Art Happening all over town. There are also tons and tons of really high-​quality lectures by urban design types, all of them free free free, and evening events for everyone during the 4 – 5 days of the event.
This is a uniquely Atlantan project, and I couldn’t be more proud that it’s rooted here.

I know the decades old question is graffiti art? is one that is debated in almost every city or undergraduate art class, or in my case, high school poetry class. Thankfully I will spare you all of the above in today’s post and I’m just going to focus on the art and this amazing project that’s been going on for 3 years here in Atlanta. This annual event \badass non-​profit is one of my favorite things about Atlanta, and after seeing the way in which they’ve evolved it seems crazy to me that no one has sung their praises via Unilocal before now.
If you haven’t been lucky enough to see some of the work around our city, Living Walls (in their own words) is a nonprofit organization that brings together street artists, academics and the public at large to activate and engage communities. Whether you’re a fan of street art or not, the immense talent of the people who attend this conference each year is stunning. I was especially psyched this year because for the first time in history, an event was held to solely focus on female artists. I could go on and on about why I love things that highlight lady power or the amazing diversity of these artists and what I feel their contribution adds to the city, but like all good art I feel it speaks for itself. CL recently posted a gallery of this year’s murals here:
Go to their site and find out more about how the conference has evolved, the art house they opened this year and just the amazing community spirit this event embodies. The site has a map of the walls from each year as well as more info about the artists (who are from all over the world) and the events surrounding the conference.