FORT SMITH -- Having eight internationally known street artists show up in Fort Smith and spend a week covering the walls of downtown buildings with huge, colorful, elaborate murals sounds unexpected.
And that's just what organizers have named the street-art festival -- Unexpected. It begins in earnest Monday.
"It's unexpected that we would have street art, public art. And for the visitors who come to historic Fort Smith, it's not what they're going to expect as well," said John McIntosh with festival organizer 64.6 Downtown.
The nonprofit organization focuses on downtown economic development. The number 64.6 stands for the number of miles of roads in Fort Smith, with the idea that anything good for downtown is good for the whole city, McIntosh said.
Eight artists from seven countries have arrived in Fort Smith, expecting to complete 11 murals by Saturday.
They are Brazilian street artists Douglas DeCastro and Renato Pereira, calling themselves Bicicleta Sem Freio; Vhils of Portugal; D*Face of England; Roa of Belgium; Maser of Ireland; Ana Maria of Puerto Rico; and Askew of New Zealand.
McIntosh said 64.6 Downtown raised corporate and private donations to pay the artists.
One mural, on the Weldon, Williams and Lick building at North Seventh and B streets, will be painted by 10 students in a University of Arkansas at Fort Smith art class. The class also will create a mural on the walls of the pedestrian tunnel that runs under Grand Avenue between the university campus and parking lot.
Don Lee, head of the university's art department, said the project will give students more than just credits and practice at art and design. It will get them out of the classroom and give them experience collaborating on a large project and working on a large scale, in public and with professional artists.
Assistant professor of graphic design Bryan Alexis said it will be good for the students to work on a large mural because much of their work has been confined to creating on relatively small drawing pads.
McIntosh said the work of most of the street artists is intentionally unusual, with bright colors and arresting images.
"This is all an economic development tool for us to create more traffic downtown," he said.
He said downtown property owners have been curious and receptive to the idea of the murals.
Phil White, who owns a building that will get a mural and who is a member of the Central Business Improvement District board, said the board endorses and supports the festival, as it supports other events to draw attention to downtown. Among them are the Hell on the Border Arkansas State Criterium Championships bicycle races next weekend, the annual Riverfront Blues Festival earlier this summer and the Steel Horse Rally of motorcycles held in the spring.
"They are all very important to downtown and what makes downtown vibrant," White said.
The 64.6 Downtown group hired Charlotte Dutoit of Puerto Rico to recruit the artists and organize the festival. She has curated other art festivals around the country and the world involving many of the artists in Fort Smith this week, McIntosh said.
Street-art festivals have been held all around the world. In the past couple of years, they have been held in cities such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Richmond, Va., and in countries including Peru, Poland, Italy, Norway, Mexico, Canada and Turkey.
"I think that it brings change in the daily routine of the people on their way to work, for example," Dutoit said. "Also, it's for everybody to see. That creates a reflection and a discussion inside the city life."
She said she was confident the Unexpected festival in Fort Smith would be one of the best because of the quality of the artists, the production, the positive reception and feedback from the community.
Downtown Fort Smith "is an ideal canvas," she said. "Very nice architecture and huge buildings with a good visibility. Also, Fort Smith has a rich history, which is very inspiring for the artists."
Dutoit said the positive response to the idea of the downtown murals showed the community's hunger for this type of cultural initiative.
McIntosh said the artists picked or were assigned to buildings on which to paint their murals. Artists have their preferences, he said. For example, two like to work on small walls, and one likes vertical walls.
The mural designs will be their own. Some of the artists liked Fort Smith's frontier origins and may incorporate the theme in their murals, he said.
Dutoit said she believes the history of Fort Smith and the Indian Territory of Oklahoma will be represented in the artists' works.
The festival kicked off with a gallery show of the street artists' works in the 58,000-square-foot Windgate Art and Design building on the UAFS campus after its dedication Thursday. Bicicleta Sem Freio also painted a mural for the lobby of the building.
The university began construction of the building last year with a $15.5 million grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation of Siloam Springs. It opened for classes last month.
Work on the downtown buildings to receive murals started last week with preparation of the surfaces.
On Friday evening, the UAFS students began outlining the mural for the Weldon, Williams and Lick building, while Bicicleta Sem Freio, which is Portuguese for Bicycles without Brakes, outlined a mural on the west wall of the old Kress building in the 800 block of Garrison Avenue.
They were set to begin applying paint to the vast, whitewashed surfaces on Saturday morning.
Beginning Monday, the artists will begin work on the murals throughout downtown. McIntosh said there should be seven or eight being painted at the same time.
"It's an open invitation," he said. "Come downtown. Watch this happen. Be a part of it."
State Desk on 09/06/2015