Downtown Orlando’s 3rd Thursday always provides an opportunity for the community to gather in celebration of arts, culture and history. This week’s Thursday evening event also kicks off the Orlando Mural Festival.
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Back for its third year, the festival uses downtown Orlando as its canvas with 15 local, national and international muralists creating large-scale works throughout the heart of the city. A special exhibition opening Thursday in CityArts’ upstairs Signature Gallery showcases studio work from artists who have participated in the festival during the past two years.
This 3rd Thursday also showcases “Hidden Florida,” an exhibition highlighting forgotten history, secluded natural landscapes and cultural treasures, and “Guatemala: My Place of Trees,” a solo exhibition by Ambar Santiago. Additionally, viewers can see StickNSlap, Florida’s largest sticker art exhibition, in an upstairs gallery, featuring 100 artists.
Murals abound
Following the indoor kickoff, the outdoor mural festival lands in Orlando from 2-10 p.m. Sept. 19 with an art party at CityArts and Thornton Park Market on Central Boulevard. Visitors can find art vendors, including artists represented in the sticker exhibition, as well as live music and food.
Visitors can see muralists working at 10 different locations on Orange Avenue, East Robinson Street, East Washington Street, Pittman Street and Church Street.
“Orlando Mural Festival has become such an exciting way to bring artists and our community together while showcasing the incredible creativity happening right here in Downtown Orlando,” said Barbara Hartley, executive director of Downtown Arts District, in a news release. “There is something really special about watching a work of art come to life right in front of you, and we love giving people the opportunity to experience that creative process while discovering artists from Orlando and around the world.”
‘Hidden Florida’
When visitors enter CityArts on the first floor, they will see tributes to places in Florida that are often overlooked. In photographs and paintings, viewers see relics of the abandoned Cross Florida Barge Canal, a tucked-away marina in Clermont, a historic Parramore church and the Cape Romano dome houses near Marco Island.
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“The premise behind the exhibition is hidden places in Florida, places that are in plain sight but nobody really thinks about or notices,” said curator Brad Biggs of Art For All Spaces. “They’re not the kind of things you find in a travel brochure.”
Other hidden gems revealed in the show include a Japanese arts and culture center in Eustis painted by Belina Wright; Florida-based celebrities Christy Martin and the late Jim Morrison, depicted by Juliana Davidson Ross; an homage to Minneola’s centennial by Eric Wise and a painting by the late watercolor master Ken Austin. The Florida Skunk Ape even makes a cameo on one canvas.
Guatemalan roots
A solo exhibition in the upstairs Side Gallery by Orlando-based painter Ambar Santiago reflects on the cultural fabric that weaves together her life. “Guatemala: My Place of Trees” features fluorescently vivid color and foliage to evoke the interior wilderness she explores.
“This is a story of three identities: my American identity; I grew up here for 25 years. I’m Puerto Rican; I was born there, and I realized I have a whole side of my Guatemalan heritage I have not touched or explored,” she said. “Part of what you see here is navigating that experience. I feel very lost sometimes, like I’m lost in the forest and making a map of my own.”
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If you go
3rd Thursdays is from 6-9 p.m. in downtown Orlando, including CityArts 39 at S. Magnolia Ave.
Orlando. The event is free to attend. More information: downtownartsdistrict.com
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