Zoetic Walls Project Invites Global Street Artists To Cleveland

Just came across this urban mural project on walls all over the Waterloo Arts district in East Cleveland's Collinwood neighborhood. Hopefully, I can there to see them sometime.

From the ArtsCollinwood website.

"The finest street artists from around the world are bringing the walls of the Waterloo District to life.

Zoetic Walls Cleveland is the first organized street art project to hit the walls of Cleveland. This public art mural project, co-curated by Waterloo Arts (Cleveland) and Pawn Works (Chicago), embraces the street art movement, which has been minimally represented in Cleveland.  This art form is sweeping like wild fire across other parts of the world and transforming cities into outdoor museums. Nick Marzullo and Seth Mooney (Pawn Works), both Cleveland natives, took notice of our emerging neighborhood and approached us to do a street art project, we welcomed them home and got to work. This wall project includes up to six murals and is a testament to the vibrant art scene of the Waterloo Arts and Entertainment District neighborhood that will be an ongoing display for many to enjoy. Imagine the walls, the alleyways, and all the nooks and crannies of the district as a canvas for the finest street artists around the world to create on. Giving artists the freedom to create work without the constraints of design committees, result in dynamic, inspired paintings that beautify the neighborhood and engage the community in thought and discussion."

The project seems to have been put together by two ex Clevelander's,  Nick Marzullo and Seth Mooney, who run a Chicago gallery called Pawn Works.

"Often, we fly in highly regarded artists from the international street-art scene to paint on Chicago’s buildings. We consider ourselves independent curators of public art in the true sense of the word."

Check out the Zoetic Walls Facebook page.

A post about GAIA's Cleveland Mural on BSA

The project got some grant sponsorship, but I can't help noticing the relative lack of local coverage from power players like The Cleveland Plain Dealer or even Freshwater Cleveland. My guess is that "street art" is still something the establishment doesn't like. 

Cleveland's North Collinwood Neighborhood Wins 500 Thousand Dollar Arts Based Development Grant

I have actually not been in this neighborhood on Cleveland's East Side, best know for The Beachland Ballroom. Collinwood is also one of several areas of the city gathering momentum at attracting artists and art related businesses.

Several things make this grant, partly funded by The Kresge Foundation.
seem fantastic-starting with it's size! Also great is that the money is going to folks in the area who have already shown themselves good at doing things-not just making grant proposals look good.

"We wanted to work with someone that got it, and Northeast Shores made a compelling case," says Beattie. "They've done a great job of giving artists license to use the neighborhood as their canvas, yet they've followed behind and supported them, resulting in organic, grassroots redevelopment of the neighborhood." He cited the arts-based businesses on Waterloo Road as one example."

Trust artists?

Many details are still to come, but the grant is likely to fund a program to help artist's purchase and rehab area homes and buildings as well as a small "$2,500-$10,000 grants to artists for community-based projects, arts-based community dialogues, and integrating arts-based development into current redevelopment projects in a deeper way."

Would love to hear from people with more knowledge of this area or projects like this going on in Cleveland-or almost anywhere else.

IMHO, all projects of this type would be leveraged by having a well done regional arts website to help spread the word and keep artists more aware and connected.