Beyond Walls Kicks off Third Annual Street Art Festival

Beyond Walls, the award- winning, place-making and public art organization will host its annual Street Art Festival through Aug. 3, in Lynn. Over a two-week period, locally and internationally renowned artists will produce large scale murals and mixed media works of street art that will be displayed throughout the city. This year in addition to a series of exclusive events, live music and artist talks, Beyond Walls will launch PATIO, a new initiative that will transform underutilized urban spaces into three seasonal “parklets” in the Downtown Lynn Cultural District. Curbside parking spaces and larger walkways will be reimagined, featuring temporary seating, a platform for performances, and pop-up dining. Diverse programming that will take place at PATIO includes “el ROLOTON,” a friendly “battle of the downtown barbershops,” informal “Living Room” conversations with local political candidates, and sidewalk sales that support Lynn-based entrepreneurs.

All programs are free and open to the public. For more information and program schedules, please visit www.beyond-walls.org

Artists will include:

Add Fuel, Portugal 

BKFoxx, USA 

Bordalo II, Portugal 

Celso, Puerto Rico 

Fresco Exchange, Colombia x Boston 

Gráfica Mestiza, Colombia 

Helen Bur, UK 

Lisa King, Australia 

LMA, Lynn 

Mademoiselle Maurice, France 

Michael Aghahowa, Lynn 

Smug, Australia 

Based in Lynn, Massachusetts, Beyond Walls is a creative place-making organization, dedicated to activating public spaces to strengthen communities. By partnering with local organizations, municipalities, residents, and property owners, Beyond Walls helps integrate public art and curated experiences into underutilized urban environments. In 2016, Founder and CEO Al Wilson—inspired by projects in Brooklyn, New York; Philadelphia, PA; and Kings Cross, London; —saw Lynn’s rich history, architecture, and burgeoning arts and cultural district as the perfect landscape to test the creative economy. Together, with a group of local business owners, residents, and public art/place-making enthusiasts Wilson formed a robust volunteer committee and launched a grass-roots effort to implement four inaugural large scale public art initiatives in downtown Lynn, a post-industrial city located just 10 miles north of Boston. The first projects spearheaded by Beyond Walls included 600 feet of interactive LED underpass lighting, the now annual Street Art Festival, the installation of vintage neon art, and a sculpture paying homage to Lynn’s industrial past. Today, Beyond Walls is led by Wilson and supported by a full-time staff with background in arts administration, city planning, and fundraising.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.