Durango murals

MURALS

Our First Project: “Local is the Way!” Mural at Durango Joe’s College Location

Durango Joes mural

Artists Dakotah Andreatta, Allie Wolfe and Hayley Kirkman in front of their mural. Not pictured: artist Sarah Sturm. Photo by Trevor Ogborn, Durango Joes.

ARTISTS: Hayley Kirkman, Allie Wolfe, Dakotah Andreatta, and Sarah Sturm

LOCATION: Durango Joes on College Drive

COMPLETED: April 2018

ABOUT THE PROJECT: Local First worked with the creative arts and business community to design and install this mural. Through creative expression and engagement with our local, independent business community, we aimed to educate the public about the importance of building a strong, local economy while celebrating artistic expression in a manner that explores the history and uniqueness of Durango and La Plata County.

The theme of our first mural was “Local is the Way!”, and it aimed to promote buying local, eating local, and being local right in the heart of downtown. This building is the gateway to downtown from Fort Lewis College and will be an exceptional opportunity to educate our community and visitors about our community’s support of the local economy as they enter Durango’s unique downtown district.

Durango artists

Photo by Jennaye Derge

Words submitted by the community!

Photos by Scott DW Smith

Our Sponsors for this Project:

Gold Level Sponsors:

Silver Level Sponsors:

Bronze Level Sponsors:

Logo Painting for the Greenery

pot shops Durango
the Greenery Durango

Completed logo painting on the side of the Greenery. May 2018.

ARTISTS: Hayley Kirkman and Soma Smith

LOCATION: The Greenery 

COMPLETED: May 2018

ABOUT THE PROJECT: Faith Frazier, Chief Marketing Officer of the Greenery, approached Local First about getting artists to paint on the side of their building in May 2018. Together, the Greenery and Local First were able to create this mural by stenciling the logotype on butcher paper, taping and outlining it on the wall via scissor lift, and filling in with paint!

Local First

Artists Hayley Kirkman and Soma Smith painting. Photo by Faith Frazier, the Greenery.

Poem Painting for the Durango Arts Center

Durango Arts Center

Completed poem painting in the Durango Arts Center. April 2018.

ARTIST: Hayley Kirkman

LOCATION: Durango Arts Center 

COMPLETED: April 2018

ABOUT THE PROJECT: Exhibition artist/Durango Arts Center volunteer Michele Sensing approached Local First to hand-letter a poem that would be displayed in the DAC’s exhibition, “The Wall”, a floor-to-ceiling collaborative gallery installation exploring the implications of creating barriers.

The theme of Walls as Barriers has been a year and a half in the making, and features six visual artists in the space and several performance artists during the reception on May 4th. Michele chose to have local artist Hayley Kirkman paint the poem on the wall because it was “more interesting” and engaging instead of just printing it on. She hopes the hand-lettering will bring more exposure to the poem and the contribute to the show’s overarching theme.

Michele believes there is a strong arts community in Durango, but hopes to see opportunities for artists to succeed professionally and make art as a source of income. “Art is vital and has been since the beginning of time,” she says. Keeping it local is important to her as well. “There’s so much talent here [in Durango] and uniquely local, handmade gifts to buy.”