City of Worcester, MA

The Worcester Public Art Working Group Announces WCUW Mural Artists

For Immediate Release: 4/28/2016 2:16 pm

Worcester, MA (April 28, 2016) - Artists have been selected for the call to create five murals on the southwest side of the WCUW building at 910 Main Street. Through a highly competitive and rigorous selection process the PAWG jurors (which make up a panel of Worcester area college art professors) have selected five diverse proposals to beautify and activate the exposed wall at WCUW's building.

Art Professors Toby Sisson, Clark University; Catherine Wilcox-Titus, Worcester State College; and Tyler Vance, Assumption College selected applicants from a pool of 55 works by 35 artists with varying degrees of mural art creation experience. There were a number of challenges for the jurors; one in particular was difficulty selecting five different proposals potentially from five different artists that complemented artwork currently existing on one of the panels of the building. Their selections of Douglas Chapel's "Open Your Ears and Mind"; Andrei Kraytsou's "Tempo"; Angrei Krautsou's "Jazz Work"; Louis Hairapetian, "Untitled" and Ryan Gardell's "Boombox" will create a synchronized composition with Dynamy's art that currently bows to the wall and also to WCUW's history and programming.

On behalf of WCUW 91.3 FM, Troy Tyree, Executive Director said, "WCUW is honored to be a collaborator in the 2016 Worcester Make Art Everywhere Mural Project. Main South is one of Worcester's more diverse neighborhoods; we look forward to doing our part by giving public art a place to live. The positive visual impact this project will bring to the Main South area is sure to act as a catalyst for other projects and developments up and down Main Street." WCUW will hold a celebration of the completed murals on Saturday, May 21st, 2016 as part of their WCUW Annual Meeting which commences at 6:00 PM followed by a concert featuring the Sarah Leveque Band.

About the Artists:

• Doug Chapel is a cartoonist - illustrator - graphic designer - who uses the moniker of Action Geek to express his strong opinions through a regularly published editorial cartoon series in both Worcester Magazine and the InCity Times. His illustration work has been exhibited at The Bean Counter, CC Lowell, Theatre Cafe and the Davis Gallery as well as self-published in over 100 local 'zines. His crowd-source retrospective "NonStop Action" is a 100-page full-color book collecting together over 20 years' worth of material.
• Andrei Krautsou, or "KEY DETAIL" is a muralist that has worked consistently towards developing his unique style since 2008. He studied architecture in Minsk, Belarus. Key Detail has recently been combining his love of travel and mural art by putting works up in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Greece, Poland, USA, Ukraine and Belarus. He took part at exhibitions in Germany and the US. His street work has been documented and featured in several urban art books.
• Louis Hairapetian graduated from the school of the Worcester Art Museum in 1969. He recently retired from Worcester Academy and is currently working part time at Worcester Historical Society. He has painted for most of his life and now has time to pursue art all the time.
• Ryan Gardell is a visual artist, mixed media painter and graphic designer. His creative approach toward art is to combine painting, stencils, collage, drawing and design into one artistic style. Currently, Ryan's focus is live painting and exhibiting at various music festivals and events both regionally and locally. He engages in many public art projects, murals, collaborations, workshops, studios and other art related endeavors. As a day job, Ryan works for an art gallery as a custom frame builder.

The "WCUW Mural" project is a part of the Worcester Cultural Coalition's Public Art Working Group and the City of Worcester's Cultural Development Division's "MakeArtEverywhere" campaign. WCUW 91.3 FM, Worcester's community Radio station partnered on the campaign by donating their wall space to the cause with funding by the Worcester Cultural Coalition which supports the City's "MakeArtEverywhere" campaign.

About WCUW
WCUW, Worcester's community radio station, was founded in 1920 by Robert Goddard and incorporated by students at Clark University in 1973. The organization moved to its current 910 Main Street location in 1980 and the non-profit purchased the building in 1989. WCUW strives to involve those communities typically under-represented by the media in programming and operations; - providing responsible community members access to the facilities and training, regardless of race, creed, sex, life style or age; - educating the community about local issues; - supporting local artists, activities and culture; - promoting awareness of global culture and issues; - fostering creative freedom and experimentation in the use of the communications media; - operating the station through participatory democracy; - and participating in the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.

About PAWG
The City of Worcester's Cultural Development Division of the Executive Office of Economic Development is spearheading an effort to increase the amount of publicly accessible art in Worcester. As part of these efforts the Public Art Working Group was established. The Public Art Working Group advocates for the creation and installation of new publicly accessible art and is currently working to identify possible sites for new public art. The Public Art Working Group is made up of local citizens and art lovers who are committed to supporting public art initiatives in the City of Worcester.