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Art for the People: Boise, City of Murals
Boise’s Freak Alley features an ever-changing gallery of local artists. PHOTO BY KAREN DAY
BY SONYA FEIBERT
Bike or walk along the Boise River Greenbelt going west, and you’ll see a colorful reminder to “Go with the flow.” On a tough day, go down 15th Street and find the mural reminding you that “You are loved,” a block away from one letting you know “It’s OK to ask for help.” When you’re missing home, look for the vibrant colors and Day of the Dead-inspired designs that echo your culture.
Talk to the artists and arts organizations behind many of the murals around Boise, and there’s a word that comes up again and again: community.
As Greg Hahn, one of the people behind the Garden City Placemaking Fund (GCPF) and the Executive Director of Surel’s Place, put it, murals “turn blank space into another point of the community in a cool and meaningful way.”
GCPF is one of the organizations making sure that emerging and re-emerging artists are given opportunities to bring their art into view on a large scale. The organization helped facilitate the bevy of art on display on either side of Chinden in the Surel Mitchell Live-Work-Create District and is currently working with a group of emerging Black artists and first-time muralists to create a mural in Garden City.
CREATING PLACE AND COMMUNITY THROUGH MURALS
For artists interested in painting their first mural, the barrier to entry can be steep. Artists are often turned down for opportunities when they don’t have prior experience. Ashley Dreyfus, the artist behind many of the colorful, playful murals and other public art you see in Boise, suggested a mentor-style program to make the labor-intensive, large-scale process of creating murals more accessible. As a result, GCPF has become a mural training ground for artists like Miguel Almeida.
“GCPF was a big help in giving me a shot,” Almeida said. “I knew Ashley Dreyfus, and she threw my name out there.”
MIGUEL ALMEIDA: FROM GARDEN CITY TO GOOGLE
Murals give access to the community. Pieces like these don’t live in a gallery.
A first-generation Mexican American, Almeida has been making art since he was a kid, but it wasn’t until he was in his mid-20s that he first visited an art gallery. His art was shaped by trips to Mexico to visit his grandparents, where the vibrant colors at outdoor markets caught his eye. In murals, he sees a way to share his culture and create a more lasting connection. “Murals give access to the community,” Almeida said. “Pieces like these don’t live in a gallery.”
Since his first mural, Almeida created many more in Garden City, Boise, and beyond. He recently traveled to Kirkland, California to design and paint a mural for Google. Almeida will soon start on a mural in Caldwell. For someone who grew up in the area and whose parents still live in Caldwell, it’s especially meaningful to create artwork that his family will get to see every day.
MAKING MURALS A PRIORITY IN BOISE / MURALS AS A BALM FOR HATE
Like the Garden City Placemaking Fund, the Boise City Department of Arts and History has played a role in funding and facilitating murals in Boise. One of the city’s most recent murals can be seen in the Boise River Greenbelt 8th Street tunnel. Created by artist Addie Boswell, the city facilitated the project in response to anti-Semitic graffiti in the tunnel.
An ordinance in the city code allocates a percentage of spending to public art and the city has worked with artists like Boswell, Bobby Gaytan, and the artist collective Sector Seventeen to bring art into the public eye.
BOBBY GAYTAN: TURNING BARRIERS INTO WORKS OF ART
For artist Bobby Gaytan, public art has always served as inspiration. You’ve likely seen his work in downtown Boise, including in Freak Alley and outside of Neurolux. He’s also created murals for Whitney Elementary and the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline.
Growing up, Gaytan watched trains go by his home and admired the graffiti adorning their cars. He went on to study graphic design and works for the Bureau of Reclamations as a designer. Gaytan began painting murals about ten years ago. His latest was recently unveiled in downtown Boise: colorful shapes and forms that now cover the 8th Street orange barriers. Gaytan worked alongside and provided membership to artists Jordynn Eld, Dana Wagner, and Breanna Boutte. “It’s important to give back and share that experience and knowledge,” Gaytan said.
JAY RASGORSHEK: INSPIRED BY NATURE
For Jay Rasgorshek, murals are a way to share and inspire a passion for the outdoors. “My interaction with the world drives my emotional connection to the artwork,” said Rasgorshek. “To win over the general public with conservation, we need to bring nature into our communities.”
Rasgorshek created the mural along the StreamWalk at Morrison Knudsen Nature Center and painted a mural outside the Boise Public Library. Like his fellow muralists, Rasgorshek mentioned the connection to something bigger when he creates a mural: “The biggest thing is the community. I’m physically contributing to the community.”
At their heart, that’s what murals are all about.
