Description

The Walls Between Waters Mural Festival is to be held on Saturday, June 7th in our vibrant community! This will be a day to celebrate creativity, culture, and the incredible talent of local and national artists, and we would love for you to be a part of it!

This event will feature live mural painting, interactive art installations, food trucks, local vendors, music & so much more!

PRESS RELEASE: 

The Essex County Land Bank and North Country Rural Development Coalition (NRDC) are seeking qualified artists for five large-scale mural projects as part of the Walls Between Waters mural festival, scheduled for the first week of June 2025 in downtown Ticonderoga. The deadline for artists to apply is February 16, 2025.

The festival’s capstone event will take place all day on June 7th, 2025, in downtown Ticonderoga. This celebration will feature local food, concerts, art vendors, and children’s activities, culminating in the unveiling of the completed murals.

At the Essex County Land Bank, we are committed to revitalizing and transforming vacant, abandoned, and underutilized properties into valuable community assets. As a land bank administered by North Country Rural Development Coalition, our mission is to foster sustainable development, promote economic growth, and enhance the quality of life for residents throughout Essex County.

In 2025, the Essex County Land Bank, in partnership with the North Country Rural Development Coalition (NRDC), will work with the community to program the Walls Between Waters mural festival in the Town of Ticonderoga. Walls Between Waters aims to transform spaces near blighted, vacant, and abandoned properties through public art installations. This new public art will foster community pride and encourage economic revitalization. The project will focus on the creation of five murals in the downtown corridor, accompanied by a community capstone festival, all day on June 7th, 2025.

Mural festivals involve the implementation of a group of murals in a condensed timeframe. All of the Walls Between Waters murals will be located within easy walking distance. The festival atmosphere draws media attention and outside visitors while inviting residents to be part of the public art creation. The mural festival in Ticonderoga will culminate on the final day of the event, when all the murals are complete and celebrated with fanfare.

“Ticonderoga, our ‘land between two waters,’ is a unique small town with a rich military and industrial history, spectacular natural beauty, and numerous recreational opportunities. The Walls Between Waters Mural Project offers an opportunity to celebrate this uniqueness and help our downtown business district regain its rightful place as the center of our town. Seeing blank building walls turned into canvases of public art highlighting those things which make Ticonderoga so special will enhance local pride in our community. In addition to the parks, walking trails, museums, and variety of businesses found on the Montcalm Street corridor, Walls Between Waters murals will provide one more reason for residents and visitors to come to our downtown,” says Joyce Cooper, Town of Ticonderoga Councilwoman and Public Art Committee member.

Local and regional artists are strongly encouraged to apply for this project. Local artists who are interested in learning more about how to install a mural may also apply to participate in the Walls Between Waters Mural Apprentice Program. The Apprentice Program is meant to offer aspiring artists an opportunity to garner valuable experience installing large-scale murals. This is an excellent resume builder for an aspiring muralist! Volunteer apprentices will be paired with experienced muralists and asked to help assist in the mural installation during the mural festival. Apprentices may learn how to scale a design to fit a building, learn about different mediums, and expand their artist network!

The mural designs will be steered at the local level. At a public workshop in Ticonderoga, community members helped to develop a mood board, or design brief, to help the mural artists to better understand what makes Ticonderoga unique; this brief will inform creatives and ensure designs that resonate with our town and represent our communities. The jury that reviews the mural designs will be made up of community members. If you want to share your thoughts, a Public Art Feedback Survey has launched! This survey is anonymous, and it provides us with valuable community feedback. The feedback will further inform the themes of the artwork. Please consider taking the survey. If you would like to be even more involved, or if you would like to be invited to future public art workshops, please reach out to Nicole Justice Green or Alexandra Hall.

“Murals activate public spaces, reinventing their use and purpose. By creating a cultural destination, we engage with an audience while visitors enjoy our community,” states Alexandra Hall, A H Public Spaces Consulting. “This project will help spark growth and momentum within downtown Ticonderoga; these projects will attract positive attention and they will beautify the town.” Hall has worked with communities throughout the country on the development of public art programs and mural festival events.

The Walls Between Waters Mural Apprentice Program application, the Walls Between Waters Open Artist Call: Request for Qualifications application, and the Public Feedback survey are located on the Essex County Land Bank’s website: https://essexcountylandbank.org/walls-between-waters/

Funding for this project is allotted by the Homes and Community Renewal’s Land Bank Initiative program. Leaders of the project include the Essex County Land Bank and North Country Rural Development Coalition with strong support and collaboration with A H Public Spaces Consulting, LLC