Submitted by Paper Whale
Local placemaking agency Paper Whale presents the Noisy Waters Mural Festival, taking place at Bellingham’s waterfront August 18-20, 2023. Featuring more than 25 artists from across North America, the festival will include live mural painting with a goal to activate a wider diversity of artistic representation in the community.
More than 150 artists applied to participate in the festival and only 8 finalists were selected for an opportunity to paint 8-foot-square murals during the three days of the event. The general public will vote for their favorite murals created at the event with the top three receiving commissions for large murals in Bellingham.
The event will also showcase a new mural project led by Indigeversal Collective Founder and Muralist Kaplan Bunce, who will be overseeing a 160-foot-long Indigeversal Collective installation along Granary Avenue, featuring seven indigenous artists. The Indigeversal Collective is a program designed to create new opportunities for artists from indigenous communities globally.
“The sole purpose of this mural is to honor the community and demonstrate how we can collectively do good things together,” said Bunce. “We are using art as a way to uplift the community and bring together unique voices from indigenous people in the purist way we know how.”
The festival will offer spray painting workshops along a 200-foot-wide public mural wall, featuring 11 runner-up artists painting a large typeface of “Noisy Waters.” The word “Whatcom” is derived from the Lhaq’temish word QwotQwem, which translates to “noisy water.”
“We are thrilled to bring creative activation of this scale to Bellingham,” said Noisy Waters co-founder and muralist, Gretchen Leggitt. “There is an abundance of opportunity to increase public art in our growing community, so I see this as an important moment to foster and cultivate the creative culture that is ingrained within Bellingham. We are honored to welcome a diverse range of talented artists to this space, to hear different stories, to see fresh styles and to inspire people to create.”
Paper Whale has been activating underutilized spaces in Bellingham since 2022, with a goal to cultivate community by producing multi-sensory events that inspire and creatively activate placemaking.
The festival is FREE and open to the public and will be held at the Peter Paulson Stage, adjacent to Trackside Beer Garden at 298 W Laurel Street on Bellingham’s waterfront.
For a schedule of events and description of performing artists, please visit www.noisywatersmuralfest.com.
