ITEM PHOTO BY SPENSER HASAK
Michael Aghahowa of Raw Art Works touches up the background of Cey Adams’ mural on Munroe Street on Wednesday.
By MATT DEMIRS
It’s been said it takes a village to raise a child.
Nothing short of that has been needed to bring the Beyond Walls mural festival to fruition, with more than 150 volunteers having some hand in creating the movement.
Amanda Hill, Carla Scheri, Pedro Soto, Audrey Stevens, and Chris Devine are just some of the volunteers at the forefront, doing just about everything under the sun as the 10-day mural festival takes shape.
Hill acknowledges she’s spent more than 80 hours a week between her full-time job at RawArts and planning for Beyond Walls since January, but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago where she put all 80 of those hours into strictly Beyond Walls.
An artist herself, Hill was approached by founder and executive director of Beyond Walls, Al Wilson, at a placemaking conference in Framingham, where the two exchanged contact information and stayed in touch through the initial planning of Wilson’s idea.
In January, Wilson officially extended the invitation to Hill, and she eagerly accepted.
Pedro Soto, who works as a City Planner in Peabody, was brought on board when the two realized they needed a third hand.
A Lynn resident himself, Soto agreed to join the brigade for reasons much bigger than putting paint on walls or lighting up city underpasses.
“I wanted to be a part of a project that works as a catalyst for change and empowers the folks that call Lynn home,” he said.
Lynn native Scheri also stepped into the picture, wanting to bring change like this in the place she grew up
Scheri, who has a strong background in art, and project management, said the collaboration between all of the volunteers has been people power at it’s finest.
“With a project of this magnitude, you need many helping hands,” she said.
An army of helping hands is exactly what’s been physically shaping the downtown cultural district.
From more than 25 members from the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 35 priming the walls for the 20 artists set to paint, to business owners such as Roger Volk, who donated and offered his wall on Munroe Street as one of the mural sites, Beyond Walls has been a city-wide affair.
“It is a terrific idea because it sends a message to people who aren’t from here that Lynn is coming alive,” Volk said.
Beyond Walls has also given the opportunity for volunteers to further work on their craft, like Michael Aghahowa of Lynn who grew up painting murals for RawArts’ Good 2 Go crew.
This week, the 23-year-old has had the chance to work alongside JPO and Miss Zukie, as well as Cey Adams, and practice and learn from those who are more experienced, he said.
Even people who have no relation to Beyond Walls have welcomed the mural festival and the artists behind the work.
FONKi, the Beyond Walls muralist raised in Montreal who is responsible for painting the woman overlooking the Munroe Street Community Garden, said people come daily to ask him if he needs anything, like water or food.
Hill said the people who live across the street from Don Rimx, the muralist painting the back of Tacos Lupitas, bring treats and food to him.
Hill also said that when her boyfriend and fellow volunteer, Chris Devine, brought one of the artists to dinner in the downtown, where the two were stopped by a stranger and greeted with a giant hug to thank Beyond Walls for their efforts.
“Watching this and seeing the community support is incredible,” Hill said. “At the end of the day when I’m going to bed and look back on it. I think ‘wow, there is so many people a part of this community who are so invested and supported us the entire way.’”
She gets stopped parading around the downtown in her Beyond Walls t-shirts where she is often thanked by people for bringing something of this caliber to Lynn, she said.
Wilson is thankful for the community efforts, he said.
“A project this big that’s multifaceted requiring so much operational work takes quite a few people working diligently to bring something like Beyond Walls 2017 to life,” Wilson said.
Matt Demirs can be reached at [email protected].
