Dubuque Buildings Transformed by Voices from the Warehouse District Mural Project

Are you missing Voices from the Warehouse District?  You can get your Voices fix year-round by checking out the murals popping up around Dubuque!   It’s easy to just jump into your car or truck and cruise around Dubuque to look at everything

Voices from the Warehouse District Productions suspended its 11-year tradition of the Millwork District gallery shows this year to embark on a public art project.

“The first phase of this new strategy is to curate a series of murals in downtown Dubuque, which we refer to as the Voices Mural Project,” said Sam Mulgrew, president of Humanities Iowa and one of the five directors of Voices Productions.

The Voices Mural Project will formally begin in 2017 and will include about 15 murals by regionally and nationally known mural painters. Runde Auto Group is proud to be a major sponsor of the Voices Mural Project, along with Humanities Iowa.

“In essence, we will be creating an outdoor gallery, but all on the walls of privately owned property,” Mulgrew said.

When the Voices from the Warehouse District murals are complete, a program will be produced so that observers can take a walking tour.

“Some of the murals will be highly visible, but some will be obscurely presented hidden in alleys and back lots,” Mulgrew said.
So far there are three murals in downtown Dubuque, all by artists who were featured in the Voices show last year:

• 1^st and Locust Street, by ARCY from Connecticut
• 1^st and Main Street, by Zore from Chicago
• The Smokestack, 62 E. 7th St., by Cold from Minneapolis

“The murals that we completed in September and October were just to get us started, dipping our toes in the water before we dive in next year,” Mulgrew said. “All vibrant communities have some degree of public art adorning their public space. Dubuque has greatly lagged in this area of creative expression. It is the intention of Voices Productions to move the needle, and get people in Dubuque involved in discussing and engaging in all forms of public art.”

Check out this video on Vimeo to see a time-lapse video of the creation of the 1st and Locust Street mural. Video courtesy of Digital Dubuque.