The JazzFest and BluesFest Old Town Mural was created as a Community Art Project in partnership with 24 teens in REACH Studio Art Center’s Teen Open Studio, the Michigan Institute for Contemporary Art, Message Makers, Habitat for Humanity, and local muralists Joy Baldwin, Samskee, Lebaron Rodgers II, Steven Allen, Kaitlyn Granger, & Julie Smith. The mural is a collage of over twenty years of both Lansing JazzFest and Michigan BluesFest poster artwork created by local area artists. The collage concept and original design came from Terry Terry and Tim Whalen of MessageMakers. This mural style is being referred to as a coloring book, where graffiti muralists spray the black outlines at night with the use of a projector and REACH teens and muralists/mentors then fill in the colors.This project is funded by MICA, State Farm’s Youth Advisory Board, the City of Lansing, Arts Council of Greater Lansing, Capital Area United Way, Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We are also very grateful to have all the paint provided by O’leary Paint.
