(1/7) Meet Denver artist Mary Mackey. In 1990, she painted on a nearly mile-long stretch of the Berlin Wall, what became known as the East Side Gallery. “It was the first time anybody got to paint on the east side of the Berlin Wall,” Mackey said. “So that was really special.”
(2/7) On Nov. 9, 1989, after nearly 3 decades of dividing the city's East & West sections, the Berlin Wall fell. During the height of the Cold War, unauthorized crossings could result in death - at least 140 people died at the wall. #mauerfall30
(3/7) Mackey was in London that day. Riveted by what was happening, & knowing she soon had to return to Denver, she thought, “I've got to get to Berlin to see the wall before it comes down.” Then she read in an art mag about artists being recruited to paint on the wall.
(4/7) Mackey's mural is called "Tolerance." It's abt acceptance of each other... “I was over there for about six months before I ended up painting the piece, and I recognized that, between East and West Berlin, there was a lot of misunderstanding of people.”
(5/7) She was 1 of 118 artists from around the world to paint on the ESG, as was Scottish artist Margaret Hunter. She said painting on it was a sad & joyous moment. “This is the wall, what I saw on tv when I was 16, looking at people coming under tunnels & being shot.”
(6/7) Any artist submission was accepted so long as the message wasn’t about hate. It was to be a "monument to joy," said Christine MacLean, who managed ESG early on.
“How many monuments to joy are there in the world & is it not more ethical to spread joy than horror & terror?"
(7/7) There's been some threats to the gallery, i.e. erosion & graffiti, as well as commercial development. There's also been debates among the artists about the ESG's legacy and how to preserve it. Mackey hopes it lives on. More abt ESG & Mackey's story: cpr.org/2019/11/29/30-…
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.@jess_m_clark and I are downtown right now. Many businesses are boarded up or putting up boards. Speaking to a landlord who says they’re putting these up “out of an abundance of caution.” He hopes the decision comes today or tomorrow given how the city has shut off downtown.
Things are mellow at the square, people talking, someone playing the piano. We spoke w/Carmen Jones of Kentucky Alliance & Black Women’s Collective, who described scene as “prickly,” as city awaits the AG announcement. Jones thinks the barricades are “an intimidation tactic.”
Diamond Dorsey improvising a song, “I hope these guys get held accountable... Black Lives Matter.”
Lou's @CarlyJMusic released 1st single off forthcoming album today. Music vid features 3 @LouBallet artists & 4 musicians.
🎧to "Burn Your Fears"⬇️
Johnson says, "I wrote "Burn Your Fears" for a dear friend of mine, Marisa Wittebort, shortly after she was diagnosed w/ an extremely rare form of lung cancer. She really beat the odds and was able to live 4 full years after being diagnosed, but she passed away last November..."
"...after her diagnosis, Marisa told me the story of how she decided to embrace life going forward... She wrote down her greatest fears on tiny pieces of paper & threw them into a fire... I wrote the song as an anthem for her... abt facing something incredibly difficult..."
First a quick s/o to @newsandtribune, which reported this 1st.
Yanoviak came to the center in 2018. She's leaving to be an art teacher with Sacred Heart Model School in Louisville.
Yanoviak told me the past 2.5ish yrs has "the greatest privilege of my professional career,” but she had time to re-evaluate things during the pandemic & she's making this move to focus on her family more.