Viva Murals Fall River

FRACC and Viva Fall River are working with mural and public art experts Beyond Walls to bring big, bold, and colorful murals and community events to Fall River, MA this July. 

Your generosity + a matching grant = creation of public art & opportunities to come together!

As part of Viva Murals space activation, this project will pay local artists, provide free events for all ages, and connect local youth with youth across the globe. 

• TRANSFORM - Most of the Fall River's walls are…well, boring. We stand for making art the norm, not the exception. Let's celebrate and elevate!
• INSTILL COMMUNITY PRIDE - Places filled with art discourage vandalism, let's show the world Fall River's pride for its community.
• EDUCATE - Our programs are designed to inspire and provide opportunities to recognize creativity can be used to serve the common good and make a positive impact.
• SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS - Murals are proven to increase existing business revenue, attracts new businesses, and improve the likelihood of community investment.
• SUPPORT ARTISTS - Every wall is an opportunity for an artist’s expression. These walls need love and artists need canvases. Let’s do this!

You're Invited! Join Us Upcoming Public Events:

• Hands-on making activities at the Fall River Farmers & Artisans Market 
  • July 10 and July 24
• Watch murals being painted live at View & Chew food truck events 
  • July 22 and 29

Fall River's youth will have a unique opportunity to connect with youth in Tierra Bomba Island, Colombia!

• Doran Elementary students will participate in a creative cultural exchange
• Students will work with Kevin Ledo to design a two-part mural concept
• One section of the mural will be painted in each of the two countries
• Making connections between two groups of children who may have markedly different life experiences but ultimately live under One Blue Sky

Our goal is to raise $30,000 through community donations.  

And unlock a Grant that will match every dollar donated up to $30,000! 

Mural Sites:

Mural Artists:

GREG PENNISTON 

Penniston working under the name "Greg Was Here" he has been painting professionally for the last decade. A child of the mid-80s and early-90s subcultural boom he transformed a fascination with graffiti, skateboards, and punk rock into a language of his own. Largely self-trained he worked primarily in spray-paint when painting large scale murals. Thematically his murals often deal very closely with local social histories and he seeks to form a close relationship between subject and viewer. The intention is for conversation and reflection with the past in order to further question concepts regarding regionality and identity. To deepen a feeling of ownership or belonging to one's environment and to act as a type of storyteller and record keeper. Ultimately, to let the stories and the names of people adorn the walls of their city.

KEVIN LEDO

Ledo grew up in a mix of urban and ethnic cultures in Montreal, raised by Portuguese parents from the Azores Islands. Kevin Ledo’s artistic practice crosses back and forth through the boundaries of mural, street art, fine art, and art installation. While there has been a consistent exploration in portraiture and the human form, the last few years have opened Ledo up to abstract art, mark making and color theory, and a quest to integrate these seemingly opposite disciplines. Ledo traces his influences and inspiration to a multitude of forces including psychology and neuroscience, religious iconography, music and design. Firmly grounded in classical painting techniques and materials while plugged into contemporary perspectives, Ledo also brings his elegant approach of realism to his compositions. Ledo’s public murals are often celebrations of people and diversity, and aim to relate to the communities they are found in. 

ADD FUEL

Add Fuel is Portuguese visual artist and illustrator Diogo Machado (b. 1980). With a degree in Graphic Design from Lisbon’s IADE – Institute of Visual Arts, Design and Marketing, Add Fuel focuses on reinterpreting the language of traditional tile design, and that of the Portuguese tin-glazed ceramic azulejo in particular. His current practice seeks to combine traditional decorative elements with contemporary visual referents into new forms that reveal an impressive complexity and a masterful attention to detail. Creating balance and harmony from symmetrical repetitions, a build-up of layers and techniques of visual illusion such as trompe-l’œil, his multi-layered patterned compositions produce a poetic rhythm that plays with the viewer’s perception and the (multiple) possibilities of interpretation. Diogo Machado lives and works in Cascais, Portugal.

Viva Fall River mural designed by Half Studio Signs and painted by Greg Pennisten and Max McGuigan for FABRIC Arts Festival 2021. Photo: João Medeiros.