Murals in the Market spent two years in Islandview after 1XRUN moved its headquarters there. For the 10th anniversary edition, the festival came back to Eastern Market. From September 15 through 22, seventeen Detroit artists worked on walls across the district while the festival ran panels, exhibitions, and parties around the painting. A walkable mural gallery is the closest description of what the festival has become.
Festival HQ was at 1520 Winder Street, the new 1XRUN warehouse, doubling as a pop-up gallery for the week. 1XRUN co-founders Jesse Cory, Roula David, and Dan Armand started the festival in 2015 with help from then-Eastern Market CEO Dan Carmody. Year one drew more than 45 local and national artists, including Hebru Brantley, Sydney G. James, Fel 3000ft, Jonny Alexander, Ryan C. Doyle, and Scott Hocking. David is now executive director.
Funders for the anniversary edition included the Gilbert Family Foundation, General Motors, the Kresge Foundation, and Hudson-Webber. Cory has said the funding bump meant the festival could fully cover paint, materials, and artist commissions for the first time in years. A lot of mural festivals don't.
Restoration was a big part of the program this round. Muralists Ed Irmen and Jay Kopicki repainted Hebru Brantley's first-year piece from scratch with Brantley's blessing, working from the original photos and color-matched paint. They also restored Zak Meers's Welcome to Eastern Market from year three and Scott Hocking's 2018 Seventeen Shitty Mountains, which is a real title and a real mural. Cory says murals tend to last five to ten years before fading and chipping force the call.
This year's standouts include a Freddy Diaz and Kelly Golden collaboration on East Fisher Service Drive depicting field workers carrying flowers, apples, and corn into the market, with Golden's hand-painted EASTERN MARKET signage anchoring the composition. Bakpak Durden, Sheefy McFly, Ivan Montoya, Tony WHLGN, Nicole MacDonald, Rick Williams, and Phil Simpson are also on the wall list.
The week packed in a lot. A meet-and-greet at UFO Bar in Corktown on Tuesday. The Stories Behind the Murals artist talk at the 1XRUN warehouse on Wednesday. Eastern Market After Dark on Thursday, the signature Detroit Month of Design event, with art pop-ups, vendors, food trucks, and an afterparty at Spotlite, Cory and David's record shop and nightclub. Walking and biking tours on Sunday.
A 10-year retrospective installed at the new 1XRUN warehouse showed work from a decade of artist-in-residence programming at Movement Festival. Cory called it the showstopper.
Eastern Market.
