Wide Open Walls is still a work in progress as Sacramento gets more colorful

Whether you attended events or not, almost everybody in Sacramento has enjoyed the Wide Open Walls mural festival. Maybe you took some pictures for your Instagram feed or noticed a mural while you sat in traffic. Although the actual festival is only about a week and a half long, the murals remain for all to see for years to come. This year’s festival technically wrapped up this past weekend, but there’s still new artwork going up.

Though the festival is officially over, Wide Open Walls founder and board president David Sobon expects locals to be able to catch art in progress at least through the end of the month. Many artists had delays on their pieces due to air quality from the wildfires.

“This year will be extended from its normal 11 days to probably more like a month or so,” Sobon said. “People have a chance to come down and see live painting on a pretty regular basis, and we’ll try to keep the Facebook page and website updated.”

The website, wideopenwalls.com, also offers a printable map of all Wide Open Walls murals and an interactive map to preview murals and build your own tour.

The website, the tours and the international artists all represent a giant leap from an idea that came to Sobon on a walk around town.

“I was literally walking my dog in an alley in Sacramento called Jazz Alley, between J and K Streets, and I noticed a couple murals,” Sobon said. “I’ve always been into art; I’ve collected art, I’ve travelled all over the world going to art museums - it’s always been a big part of my life. I went from ‘That’s cool, it’s really good, how do they do that?’ to ‘How do I raise money to get more in Sacramento?’”

In the first five years of the festival, around 130 murals have been added to the 400 that already existed in the city.

Every year artists apply for a chance to participate - this year there were around 400 entries - and the board selects the artists. In light of the pandemic, the nonprofit chose to focus on local artists for this year, but in the past artists have come from all over the world to leave their mark.

The pandemic and wildfires weren’t the only obstacles to the festival this year.

“We are a nonprofit, and we’re operating on a budget that’s about a quarter of previous years,” Sobon said.

Much of the money pays for fencing and signage to help keep people socially distanced as they watch artists work.

Author Thomas Merton famously said, “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” Times of crisis and uncertainty seem to make that even more true.The goal of the festival is to celebrate diversity while making art accessible to people’s daily lives.

“The diversity of our artists this year is the way it should be. There’s more women and more people of color painting in our festival than any other festival in the world,” Sobon said.

Sometimes the artist asks visitors to think about social justice issues, like Shepard Fairey’s famous 2018 contribution of Johnny Cash on L Street, which is meant to get people thinking about prison reform. Sometimes the artist just wants to show you something beautiful.

When Sobon was growing up, it was the goal of young people he knew to leave the Sacramento area. The murals are helping change the perception of Sacramento as a boring state-office town.

“People are into it,” Sobon said. “It’s changed the feel for Sacramento. I think one of the best compliments I ever get is ‘Oh my god, my kid went to school in - pick a town - and they couldn’t wait to come back to Sacramento with all the cool art.’ They brag about their town.”

But it isn’t just young people that love the change. Sobon tells a story of running into a couple in their 80s while preparing for Wide Open Walls. They were taking pictures of blank walls, then pictures of the walls being put together, and then the final products, to document the change happening in their city.

It takes a team to change the city. In addition to Sobon, the Wide Open Walls board of directors includes Margaret Owens, Zayn Silmi, Raphael Delgado and Mike Stalter. And, of course, there are sponsors and partners.

The Downtown Sacramento Partnership helps make sure the streets and sidewalks around the murals are kept clean for people to enjoy long after the festival is over. Funding was so low this year, the festival was almost unable to happen until Kolas, a Sacramento marijuana dispensary, stepped in to help sponsor.

“It’s more than just social justice - there’s economic development that happens in some areas,” Sobon said of the many reasons businesses help sponsor the festival.

While the biggest benefit might be seen by the community, it can also be a huge boost for the artists involved. They are given exposure on a sometimes-massive scale, and that can bring huge changes in their careers. Some of the artists painting this year have many years of experience, and some are new to this format.

Perhaps most gratifying for Sobon is seeing former volunteers now getting a chance to paint murals in Sacramento.

“A lot of volunteers that started helping painters and running around buckets of water - they’re now painting murals. It’s pretty awesome,” he said.