Short-lived mural at popular brewery frustrates Wichita artists

For a short while, the south-facing wall at Central Standard Brewing was coated in paint.

A colorful honeybee-themed mural – with images of tacos, opossums and a rainbow Keeper of the Plains – was painted in late September as part of Avenue Art Days, an annual two-day mural-painting event in the Douglas Design District.

Then, little more than a week later, the wall was painted stark black.

The brewery’s decision to paint over its Avenue Art Days mural frustrates the three-artist team who designed the mural, who say they spent nearly two months creating the design and four days painting it.

“That’s the part that’s so frustrating,” said artist Hugo Perez Trejo, who said he lost sleep working on the mural. “People invest time and I think that the decision that Central Standard took ... wasted our time, basically.”

Central Standard Brewing declined to comment for this story.

‘Cross Poli-Nation’

Avenue Art Days is a two-day event in the Douglas Design District (Douglas between Oliver and Washington). Artists paint murals on buildings whose owners have donated their wall space to the project.

Artists submit mural designs and the winners are paired with one of the businesses that donated wall space to Avenue Art Days.

Businesses offer their walls before the winning designs are chosen, but they can preview their mural before it goes up and either approve or withdraw the wall space.

This year, artists who participated in Avenue Art Days – traditionally a volunteer-only event – were given a stipend for their work.

Once the murals are painted, it’s entirely up to the participating businesses to decide whether they want to keep the free mural.

Out of 56 murals that have been painted as part of Avenue Art Days, five have been removed or painted over, according to Janelle King, founder and coordinator of Avenue Art Days.

The artist team who designed the honeybee mural, “Cross Poli-Nation,” at Central Standard Brewing – Abram Howell, Margi Ault-Duell and Perez Trejo – say they were surprised at how quickly their mural was removed. The mural was up for roughly two weeks.

“It feels very sudden for them to cover it over,” Ault-Duell said. “They’re perfectly in their right to cover it, but it does it feels like we invested a lot of time and we pulled in a lot of people who also invested their time. It just felt like it was not handled in a way that respects the value of all the effort that people put into it.”

Ault-Duell, who has painted murals in Wichita before as part of the ICT Army of Artists, said the brewery contacted her “a few hours” before the mural was painted over.

“They said ... they work with a marketing consultant who is helping them develop their branding, and that person felt (the mural) didn’t fit with their marketing plan,” Ault-Duell said. “They’ve admitted to us that they probably should not have participated in the event, because it means giving up some aesthetic control over your space.”

Maintaining positive relations

In recent months, artist compensation and commissions have been a topic of conversation in the Wichita art scene.

If someone commissions a mural, he or she has control over the design. That’s why gallerist Reuben Saunders declined to offer his wall to Avenue Art Days, instead commissioning a mural from local artists Josh Tripoli and Rebekah Lewis.

Still, artists agree that Avenue Art Days is vital to starting the commission conversation and acting as a springboard to artists’ careers.

The Douglas Design District “has become a destination for visitors and Wichitans alike and a source of pride in our community,” King said in a written statement. “As (Avenue Art Days) continues to grow each year new opportunities and challenges arise, and we strive to maintain positive relations with and between the businesses, artists and community.”

For Perez Trejo, it’s going to be difficult to mend the relationship with Central Standard.

“It’s a place we really like to be on weekends,” he said. “To paint Central Standard was kind of a dream for us.

“Now I don’t want to go there anymore.”

This story was originally published October 4, 2017 at 7:59 PM with the headline "Short-lived mural at popular brewery frustrates Wichita artists."