Adult Swim Partnering With Atlanta-Based Arts Non-Profit Living Walls
When a national entertainment media platform turns its spotlight on local community arts, a powerful amplification of voices becomes possible. Adult Swim, the television network known for bold, visually adventurous, and irreverent animated and live-action comedy, certainly knows a thing or two about visual art. In an effort to show solidarity with minority visibility movements taking place across the country, Adult Swim began a collaboration with the Atlanta-based arts non-profit Living Walls.
The goal of the “Adult Swim Atlanta Mural Project” is to provide public spaces all over the city for Black muralists to display their artwork. “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes was joined by Adult Swim’s Production Manager Bridget Kimbrough, Living Walls co-founder and Executive Director Monica Campana, and participating muralist Yuzly Mathurin to talk about the collaboration and the goal of putting more Black art and influence onto Atlanta’s canvas.
“The project, in general, came about as a response to the acknowledgment of racial injustice that surfaced last summer, and within our network, we were looking at ways to organically address it,” Kimbrough said. “As a brand, we’ve always stood for the principles of creative freedom and elevating the voice of artists, so … it was an organic solution for us to bring in local Black talent to create murals in public spaces. And Living Walls, with their reputation and the reason that they exist as a non-profit, to bring about social change, was just a perfect partnership for us.”
Yuzly Mathurin was one of the artists chosen by Adult Swim and Living Walls to contribute a mural. Mathurin said that during the time she received the email inviting her onto the project, the murder of George Floyd was recent and weighed heavily on her mind, along with the rash of anti-Asian hate crimes that were tormenting communities across America.
“I wanted to create a piece that focused on Black and Asian culture, and I wanted to highlight how beautiful the cultures are, and just to spread the message of ‘Spread love, not hate,’ and especially with everything that was happening to both cultures,” Mathurin said.
Other artists recently selected include E. L. Chisolm and Emmanual Rivas, whose murals are appearing on the West Side Trail of the Beltline and in the Decatur Square, respectively. An earlier round of mural commissions last year went to William Downs, Sofahood, and Jasmine Nicole Williams.
“I think that people can see the message that each of them is trying to bring from their work, and again, it’s all about Black empowerment, creating visibility for our Black community, and also staying very relevant to the times,” Monica Campana said. “I think that people can tell that there’s a lot of care and intention with the artists that are being selected.”
“The only way we could do this would be to open up our platforms to create the space for these artists, and then get out of the way,” said Kimbrough. “We want to choose artists we think have something to say, and then let them say it.”
More on the featured artists and the locations of their work can be found at www.adultswim.com/atlantamuralproject.
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