Columbia Street Mural Fest will bring art to life downtown in August

WENATCHEE — The Columbia Street Mural Fest is coming on August 9 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and if you haven’t heard about it yet, it’s because it’s brand new. In fact, it’s all the big idea of a local artist with a lot of faith in other artists. She has so much faith that it’s not even her middle name — it’s her first name.

Faith Merz doesn’t think small. She may prefer a small town, but her ideas are big, and she’s not shy about sharing them. That’s how she found herself at the center of what could be the cornerstone of a thriving arts district in Wenatchee.

The “Craft District,” as the movers and shakers in this town have been calling it, has been in the works for a while now, although it was initially intended to be called “Brewers’ Row” and have breweries all along it. There’s still at least one coming: Blewett Brewing is opening up toward the end of August in the old Wells & Wade Building that once hosted Badger Mountain Brewing.

The rest of the block along Columbia Street between Orondo Avenue and Yakima Street was purchased back in 2019 by the Port of Chelan and although the vision has evolved into what they’re now calling the Craft District, the fact of the matter is that all of those fruit storage and sorting buildings are going to be renovated into a new use, and at the south end of that block, facing west at the corner of Columbia and Yakima, is a giant wall.

That’s where Faith had her vision. You’ve seen her around town. She looks like a woman with a vision. She’s brought you a beverage or a meal at McGlinn’s, or you’ve heard her delivering fiery spoken word at an open mic night, or you’ve seen her painting a giant picture in real time to be auctioned off at the end of the Night Market downtown. This time her vision is a mural.

She’s done plenty of art herself. She’s been commissioned by a number of locals, starting with the owner of Leaf Gym down at Fifth and Piere, just on the other side of the train tracks. But with the idea of an arts-type area starting downtown, Faith wanted to coordinate something that would involve others. So she dreamed up the Columbia Street Mural Fest.

Picture a block party — she plans to shut down Columbia Street on that entire block for this event. Nearby 383 Threads is going to be the “host” of the party, with the new space they’ve just opened up streetside for hanging out, and they’ll have a juice bar as well. Blewett Brewing, who will be opening just a few weeks after the Mural Fest, will be providing beer. There will be local DJs with music. There will even be a flash tattoo event with artists from Ole Soul Studio, the recent winners of Business of the Year.

And there will be 8 artists selected from around the state, with a preference for those from Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Kittitas and Okanogan Counties. The day of the event, they will be painting live for people to watch, but they will have plenty of time to prepare — the open call for artists is happening now, and they have until June 13 to get their applications in.4

The day before the event, the artists will get some time to prep their pair of 4 foot by 8 foot panels, a total of 8 by 8 in which to create a piece of art that viewers will then get to vote on via QR code when all of the art is finished.

The winner will then get a paid contract from the Wenatchee Downtown Association to put that mural on the site of Faith’s vision, the wall that faces west at the end of the block. The final mural will be enlarged to 14 by 14, and it will be painted on a removable surface, rather than the historic brick itself. That was one condition from the Chelan-Douglas Regional Port Authority as Faith pitched this idea to them.

So how did she find herself involved like this? Well, in her words, she “just showed up.” She’d already done art markets all throughout the Northwest, and she set her sights on this area. “I just went to art events. I supported my community. I met enough people that were, like, ‘Hey!’ until it turned into an opportunity for me. I got one last summer at the Crossfit gym I go to, Leaf Gym. Kyle Varick [the owner] hired me, commissioned me to do a mural, which I’d never done before. I had been strictly graphic design, stained glass installation, that kind of thing. And then I discovered that I really like to paint on walls,” Merz says.

She painted more, met more people, and soon discovered that Wenatchee has a thriving art community as far as participants, but not a huge one as far as opportunities.

“I think people forget about art,” she says, “and I don’t think they realize how important it is, regardless of who you are, where you’re from, your music, your clothes, the way buildings are designed, and roads, the way cars are designed — it’s all art.”

She doesn’t like that when people do think of art, they put it in a box where Mona Lisas and Venuses go. “What’s infatuating about murals,” Merz says, “is that they’re in your face. They’re big and in your way and they make you think. They take up space like nothing else can.”

She’s world traveled. She’s been to LA, New York and Thailand in just the last year. She’s seen some art, and she doesn’t want homogenized, algorithmic art to decorate the walls of the downtown she’s called home for the last 7 years. So what else was there to do, besides open it up to everyone, make it big, and get someone paid to do it?

The Columbia Street Mural Fest will be held August 9, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., so plan your day around it. If you’re an artist and you want to get in on this, submit your application on the Downtown Association’s website before 5 p.m. on Friday, June 13. All the rest of the pertinent information — allowed subjects, guidelines, necessities and time limits — are on the site as well. You can be part of a vision for downtown Wenatchee.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media