The project was started about… over?… 2 years ago with design…then approval by the city and DOT… We are 3/4 of the way complete with the mural project. On the west side of Lexington, Kurt Thaesler and I have completed 1/2 of the mural, but our $ has run out. We’ll be fundraising in hopes to get the other 1/2 done this spring. Hope this finds you well.
Peace, Steve Lister.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Dine out at the Asheville Mural Project’s Silent Art Auction and
Banquet Dec 20th

Asheville Mural Project – seated dinner at the YMI Cultural Center December 20th, from 7 – 10pm – 39 South Market St (corner of Eagle St)

http://www.ymicc.org/ 828-252-4614
$35, 160 seats available
http://www.ashevillemuralproject.org/

www.arts2people.org/amp

http://www.arts2people.org/

www.myspace.com/arts2people.org

(Asheville, NC) Assist The Asheville Mural Project (AMP) in
fulfilling the dream of creating more community-made public art,
creating new spaces, and revitalizing old by attending the AMP’s Silent Art Auction and Banquet on December 20th at the YMI Cultural Center, on the corner of Eagle and Market Streets downtown. This will be a seated banquet dinner from 7pm until 10pm. There will be music, a silent art auction, live painting and auction, cultural arts speakers and a slide show on the creative culture in Asheville, focusing on the mural project. Be sure to get your tickets early as there is limited seating; tickets are $35.

Supporting the arts by attending this banquet also means getting a taste of some of the finest food that Asheville Culinary Artists have to offer. This buffet-style dinner consists of food contributed from over 15 of the areas finest independent restaurants, including Table, Mela, Bouchon, Heiwa, Zambra, the Marketplace, Salsas, The Lobster Trap, Jerusalem Garden, Early Girl, Thai Basil, the New French Bar, MoDaddy’s, Laurey’s Gourmet Catering, Barleys, Doc Cheys, amongst others.

Entertainment for the evening includes classical guitar, members of the Asheville High School Choir, as well as other local music acts. Mingle about as you bid on the art donated to the silent auction by local artists. Four AMP Artists will also be painting live on stage
throughout the evening and will auction of the finished pieces. There will also be guest speakers and a slideshow presentation about the history of murals, as well as cultural and community development of murals. Guest speakers will give a narrative about the importance of grassroots arts in Asheville and how art can be used a positive force in every-day experience. Speakers include AMP Director Molly Must, AMP Artist Dan Beck, Arts2People’s Executive Director Kitty Love and others to be determined.

This banquet is a fundraiser for the completion of the Lexington
Gateway Mural, located on the support pillars of the I240 overpass
marking the Northern Corridor into downtown Asheville. Moneys raised
will go to support AMP artists and buying the remaining necessary
materials, including the high cost of scaffolding, to complete this
cultural heritage mural. After having raised $10-15k for the
implementation of this project, an additional $10,000-15,000 is needed to complete this mural, including the painting of the Merrimon Ave side of the support pillars.

Any extra funds raised will go towards several of AMP’s newest
potential mural sites, including the Asheville Public Library, the
Asheville Transit Center (bus station downtown), and the Montford Corner Store; and to pay staff to sustain the program, write grants, and other administrative details. Help AMP fulfill the dream of creating more community-made public art, creating new spaces and
revitalizing old. Private Donations are always welcome.

If all goes well, AMP will begin painting again on the Lexington Gateway Mural as soon as it gets warm enough in the spring, and will simultaneously begin coordinating the Montford Corner Store Mural (under the direction of Dan Beck).

The Asheville Mural Project, a branch of Arts 2 People, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, exists to beautify and diversify Asheville’s urban landscape, providing artists and local community members with the opportunity to design and implement their own public art. AMP believes that murals enhance quality of life and create artful metropolitan experience through the transformation of conventional architecture. AMP’s murals are both the testimony and celebration of a lively local arts culture.

Arts 2 People also houses the Lexington Ave. Arts and Fun Festival (LAAFF), the REACH Programming series, the new Pritchard Park Cultural Arts Program, Moving Women, the Faces of Asheville and more. LAAFF has played in integral role in the fundraising and awareness raising efforts to support AMP for the past six years; we are all excited to see this vision turn into reality. Arts 2 People is devoted to promoting the role of the arts as an integral part of our culture by serving the entire community through arts outreach, bringing the arts to those in need of the healing power of art, supporting the careers of artists, and through community cultural development. To find out more, visit http://www.arts2people.org/.

Press Contact is Erin Scholze ~ Dreamspider Publicity ~ Dreamspider@gmail.com ~ 828-776-6248

Program Director is Molly Must ~ Asheville Mural Project ~ Molly@Arts2People.org or call 828 582 6951