Wish to witness murals within the making, ask artists questions, eat food and revel in live music? Chroma Zone Mural & Art Festival is perhaps just the place for you this weekend.
“It’s really a probability to get out and explore our neighborhood,” Creative Enterprise director Angela Casselton said.
Since 2019, the Chroma Zone festival has celebrated muralists and art in St. Paul. Chroma Zone artists typically begin painting murals in May and finish in September, just in time for the festivities. The festival is back this fall as Thursday, Friday and Saturday are jam full of free afternoon and evening art events for all ages.
“We just work all summer long to make the murals occur,” Casselton said.
The kickoff starts 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday at Urban Growler, 2325 Endicott St., with an artist meet and greet, panel discussion, music, food and drinks available for purchase. Local artists speaking within the panel include Juliette Perine Meyers, Jordan Hamilton, Xilam Balam and Thomasina Top Bear.
Friday’s experience runs from 5 to eight:30 p.m. on the Baker Court constructing at 821 Raymond Ave., featuring a live painting demo, Indigenous makers market, “Indigenous women on partitions” mural tour and a free community meal.
Saturday festivities go from noon to 10 p.m. Juniper Market, which features 20 artist vendors, is open from noon to six p.m. A mural tour bus offers a view of the seven recent murals in St. Paul from noon to three p.m. and hands-on art activities are led by ARTLET26 from 1 to three p.m.; those that take the bus tour can receive a free wristband for the annual live music Blocktoberfest event from 4 to 10 p.m. at Dual Citizen Brewing, 725 Raymond Ave.
“It’s fun, it’s very community focused, it’s all about putting identity on this small neighborhood,” Casselton said.
Casselton said that while she loves for people to affix the three day festival, Chroma Zone encourages people to go to the murals any day of the 12 months, and maps are situated on their website, chromazone.net/maps.
For more information, visit chromazone.net.
Chroma Zone by the numbers
- 63 of St. Paul’s 73 murals were produced by Chroma Zone
- 89% of artists are local artists
- 77% of artists are BIPOC
- 57% of artists are women