You might remember David Guinn as the mruralist who painted Autumn, the very pretty season-themed work that was covered up a new house built at Ninth and Bainbridge. Before that happened, Guinn fought a rather public battle—aided by art-loving community members—to try to preserve the mural, but to no avail. A house went up and Autumn disappeared. (A new Autumn is going up now at Fleisher at Seventh and Catherine, thankfully.)
As one of the Mural Arts Program's most popular muralists, Guinn knows well the rules and regs of working with MAP, one of which is intense neighborhood participation in conception, design and approval of the mural artwork. He's found himself at the center of community battles that weren't really about him, but more about the neighborhood itself and its evolution and attempt to define itself as times and the city change. MAP processes very often serve as a fulcrum around which debates take place.
If he was tired out by the community input process, he never made an issue of it. But his new project is a swing in the opposite direction. It's called the Freewal Mural Project. It's a collaborative art project on the side of Fergie's bar, and it has a major difference from the projects Guinn has done with the Mural Arts Program: Rather than be beholden to community approval for the murals, Guinn and the other artists who participate will be accountable only to their artistic vision. As Guinn puts it, it'll be like a gallery on a wall, with the artists—not the community—driving the process.
Here's a video all about the project.
· Freewall Mural Project [Kickstarter]
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