Walls across Carson City will become canvases again Sept. 15-19 as the fourth annual Murals & Music Festival brings artists from Nevada and around the world to the capital for five days of public painting, music and community events.
Following this year’s festival completion, which will mark more than 85 mural painted across the past three years, organizers plan to explore other types of public art to bring to the capital city.
This year’s festival will add 15 new works to the current citywide collection of more than 70 murals, transforming otherwise blank walls into public art residents and visitors encounter as part of everyday life.
For Brewery Arts Center Executive Director Spike McGuire, that accessibility is central to the project.
“One of the biggest things that we strive for at Brewery Arts Center is barrier-free accessibility to the arts,” McGuire said. “Putting it out across town makes it easy for everyone to experience.”
Murals can also give artists a way to reflect the history, culture and character of the place where they are working, he said — something particularly suited to a capital city whose residents take pride in Carson City’s heritage.
“It’s a great way to celebrate all of the things that make Carson City Carson City,” McGuire said. “It adds color to everyone’s day-to-day life.”
The festival began in Carson City in 2023, but McGuire’s involvement with mural festivals stretches back years.
He first worked with muralist and organizer Eric Brooks on a Reno mural festival in 2016, handling the music side of the event. The two later worked on mural festivals in communities across Nevada, including Elko, Fernley and Winnemucca.
When McGuire took over at the Brewery Arts Center, he said bringing the concept to Carson City felt like a natural extension of that work. Visit Carson City became a major partner in the inaugural festival, and Brooks later became Visit Carson City’s arts and culture program manager.
Four years later, McGuire said, the event serves two communities at once: the public and the artists themselves.
“A big part of our job at BAC is bringing the community together,” McGuire said. “But another big part is to bring the artist community together, too. This festival does a great job at achieving both of those goals.”
International artist community converges in Carson City
That artist community will again stretch well beyond Nevada this year.
McGuire said organizers have made a point of bringing at least three international artists to Carson City for each festival. This year’s lineup includes Australian muralist Heesco, Mexico’s PRISM A.G. and Spanish muralists Jokin Sortwo and Lara Hurtado.
They will join artists from around the country and a large Nevada contingent, including Carson City-based artists Alex Kaskie and Andrew Doiron. Other participating artists include Erik Burke, Tenger Dash, Hayley Meadows, Anthony Ortega, Doomed Movement, J Charboneau, Bill Louis, Joe C Rock, Rafael Blanco, Eric Bussart, Bryce Chisholm and Marshall Stokes.
The festival model itself helps Carson City attract artists who might otherwise be difficult to bring in for individual commissions, McGuire said.
Many of the participating muralists travel constantly for projects around the country and world. While they may know one another professionally, their schedules often keep them in different places.
“It’s a special experience for the artists that they get to all spend a week together in the same town,” McGuire said.
Painting the past
One of this year’s projects will bring that combination of local history and nationally recognized mural work directly to the Brewery Arts Center campus.
A long-standing mural depicting brewers from the historic Carson Brewing Company has occupied part of the Division Street side of the BAC for decades.
The mural is showing its age, McGuire said, but it has developed a following of its own. Descendants of the brewers depicted in the piece still visit it, and simply painting over the image did not feel appropriate.
Instead, the artwork will be recreated on a much larger scale.
The existing mural occupies a relatively small panel on the wall. The new version will expand the imagery across the exterior of the BAC annex, with Nevada muralist Erik Burke taking on the project.
The BAC generally asks building owners involved in the festival to keep murals in place for at least three years, McGuire said. But buildings change, walls are remodeled or demolished, and outdoor paintings eventually weather.
“Murals by their very nature are temporary,” McGuire said.
The growing collection has also become a draw for people exploring Carson City.
“It creates an incentive to go exploring and see what you find along the way,” McGuire said. “Maybe they popped into town to fill up their gas tank and get back on the road.”
As the collection has grown, organizers are also beginning to think more broadly about what comes next for public art in Carson City.
Looking to the future in public art options
One issue is practical: wall space.
After this year, the annual mural festival will take a break, but McGuire said mural projects are not going away. BAC expects to continue coordinating individual large-scale murals, potentially at least once a year.
The shift will also give the organization more time and resources to pursue other forms of public art.
“There’s lots of other art that we want to spend time and resources on bringing to Carson,” McGuire said.
Sculpture is one area BAC hopes to explore more extensively, along with artists and mediums that have not traditionally had the same public presence in Carson City.
“We really want to start getting more sculptural artwork throughout the city,” McGuire said.
Festival activities
For this year, organizers are also expanding the ways residents can engage with the festival beyond watching painters work.
Spanish muralists Jokin Sortwo and Lara Hurtado will host a free Community Collage workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, in the BAC Painting Studio. Participants will create artwork that will be incorporated into the pair’s larger mural, with supplies provided.
The festival begins Tuesday, Sept. 15, with muralist Rafael Blanco presenting “Ditching the Studio” at 6 p.m. in the BAC Exhibition Hall. The free artist talk will focus on the risks, failures, challenges and rewards involved in moving from studio work into large-scale public art.
A welcome reception will follow at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, featuring live music from Luca De Paolis of Rome and Jimmy Rossi. Participating muralists will also be on hand, giving the public a chance to meet the artists and learn about the pieces taking shape throughout town.
Music will continue Friday with a Loud As Folk songwriter showcase featuring Oregon musician Taylor Kingman, best known as frontman for TK & The Holy Know-Nothings, along with Stoneteeth.
The show begins at 7 p.m. in the BAC Performance Hall. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.
On Saturday, Sept. 19, Brooks will lead guided mural walks departing from the Brewery Arts Center at 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. The roughly 90-minute tours will include information about the muralists and the process behind placing public art, with opportunities to encounter artists still working on their pieces.
The week concludes at 7 p.m. Saturday with a free screening of “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” the 2010 documentary directed by street artist Banksy, in the BAC Performance Hall.
McGuire said community response over the past three years has been overwhelmingly positive — though there is rarely agreement about which mural is best.
And while the festival itself may evolve after this year, McGuire said he has seen little indication that Carson City’s appetite for art is slowing.
“My experience with the Carson City community is they have such an appreciation for art that I could fill every square inch of this town with art and they would still love to see more art coming in,” McGuire said.
Check out the map below and find the new mural locations going up this year:
