The Walls That Tell a City's

There is a particular moment that Spike McGuire, executive director of the Brewery Arts Center, has come to treasure above all others during Carson City's Murals & Music Festival. It is not the unveiling of a finished piece, nor the applause at a concert, but something quieter: watching someone who stopped in Carson City for gas wander into the orbit of a working artist, pause, and then stay. "It creates an incentive to go exploring and see what you find along the way," McGuire said. "Maybe they popped into town to fill up their gas tank and get back on the road." Those spontaneous encounters are exactly what the fourth annual Murals & Music Festival, running September 15 through 19, is designed to produce. Over five days, fifteen new murals will take shape across Nevada's capital city, joining a collection that includes murals created in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Artists from Australia, Mexico, Spain, and across the United States will paint in public, working through the weather, the curious, and the ordinary rhythms of a small city going about its business. When the week ends, the walls will still be there, telling stories for years to come. For McGuire, that permanence is the point. "One of the biggest things that we strive for at Brewery Arts Center is barrier-free accessibility to the arts," he said. "Putting it out across town makes it easy for everyone to experience." The festival began in 2023, but its roots run deeper. McGuire first worked with muralist and organizer Eric Brooks on a Reno mural festival in 2016, handling the music side of the event. The two later carried the concept to communities across Nevada, including Elko, Fernley, and Winnemucca. When McGuire took the helm at the Brewery Arts Center, bringing the idea to Carson City felt like a natural extension of that work. Visit Carson City became a major partner in the inaugural festival, and Brooks eventually became the organization's arts and culture program manager. Four years on, the event serves two communities at once. "A big part of our job at BAC is bringing the community together," McGuire said. "But another big part is to bring the artist community together, too. This festival does a great job at achieving both of those goals." That artist community reaches well beyond Nevada. This year's lineup includes Australian muralist Heesco, Mexico's PRISM A.G., and Spanish muralists Jokin Sortwo and Lara Hurtado, joining a large Nevada contingent that includes Carson City-based artists Alex Kaskie and Andrew Doiron, alongside Erik Burke, Tenger Dash, Hayley Meadows, Anthony Ortega, Doomed Movement, J Charboneau, Bill Louis, Joe C Rock, Rafael Blanco, Eric Bussart, Bryce Chisholm, and Marshall Stokes. Many of these muralists travel constantly, their schedules keeping them in different cities and countries. "It's a special experience for the artists that they get to all spend a week together in the same town," McGuire said. The festival model also allows Carson City to attract artists who might otherwise be difficult to bring in for individual commissions. This year's international headliner, Heesco, born Khosnaran Khurelbaatar in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and based in Melbourne, is one of Australia's most prolific mural and silo artists, with works featured by National Geographic and collaborations with Marvel and Nike. Now he will leave his mark on Carson City's walls. But the festival is not only about new art; it is also about honoring what came before. One of this year's most anticipated projects will bring a decades-old mural into a new era. A long-standing painting depicting brewers from the historic Carson Brewing Company has occupied part of the Division Street side of the Brewery Arts Center campus for decades. The mural, originally painted in 1995 by J. Hunt and restored in 2019 by Deana Hoover, shows the Millard family that ran the Carson Brewery at the turn of the century, based on a 1934 photograph taken nearly where the mural stands. The image has developed a following of its own. Descendants of the brewers still visit it. Painting over it simply did not feel appropriate. Instead, the artwork will be recreated on a much larger scale, expanding the imagery across the exterior of the BAC annex, with Nevada muralist Erik Burke taking on the project. The Brewery Arts Center itself is steeped in the history the mural celebrates. The organization is housed in the oldest commercial building in Nevada, standing since 1864, when it was first home to the Carson Brewery, original manufacturers of Tahoe Beer. After the brewery closed in 1948, the space became headquarters for the Nevada Appeal newspaper before the Brewery Arts Center established itself there in 1976. In 2000, BAC purchased the neighboring St. Teresa Catholic Church and converted it into a 250-seat performance hall, and in 2015 the city deeded Minnesota Street to the organization, unifying a two-block arts campus. That deep history makes the festival's work feel especially resonant in a capital city whose residents take pride in Carson City's heritage. "It's a great way to celebrate all of the things that make Carson City Carson City," McGuire said. "It adds color to everyone's day-to-day life." The festival's offerings extend beyond watching painters work. Spanish muralists Sortwo and Hurtado will host a free Community Collage workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday, September 17, in the BAC Painting Studio, where participants will create artwork that will be incorporated into the pair's larger mural, with supplies provided. The festival opens Tuesday, September 15, with muralist Rafael Blanco presenting "Ditching the Studio" at 6 p.m. in the BAC Exhibition Hall, a free artist talk about the risks, failures, challenges, and rewards of moving from studio work into large-scale public art. A welcome reception follows at 6 p.m. Wednesday, September 16, featuring live music from Luca De Paolis of Rome and Jimmy Rossi, with participating muralists on hand. Music continues Friday with a Loud As Folk songwriter showcase featuring Oregon musician Taylor Kingman, best known as frontman for TK & The Holy Know-Nothings, along with Stoneteeth. The show begins at 7 p.m. in the BAC Performance Hall, with tickets $20 in advance and $25 at the door. On Saturday, September 19, Brooks will lead guided mural walks departing from the Brewery Arts Center at 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., roughly 90-minute tours covering the muralists and the process behind placing public art, with opportunities to encounter artists still working. The week concludes at 7 p.m. Saturday with a free screening of "Exit Through the Gift Shop," the 2010 documentary directed by street artist Banksy. There is, however, a note of change on the horizon. After this year, the annual festival will take a break. McGuire said mural projects are not going away — BAC expects to continue coordinating individual large-scale murals, potentially at least once a year — but the shift will give the organization more time and resources to pursue other forms of public art, particularly sculpture. "There's lots of other art that we want to spend time and resources on bringing to Carson," he said. "We really want to start getting more sculptural artwork throughout the city." One practical reason for the pause is simple: wall space. After this year's festival, organizers are beginning to think more broadly about what comes next for public art in Carson City. "Murals by their very nature are temporary," McGuire acknowledged, pointing out that buildings change, walls are remodeled or demolished, and outdoor paintings eventually weather. The BAC generally asks building owners involved in the festival to keep murals in place for at least three years. But even with that impermanence, the collection has become a genuine draw for people exploring the city. McGuire said community response over the past three years has been overwhelmingly positive, though there is rarely agreement about which mural is best. And while the festival itself may evolve, he has seen little indication that Carson City's appetite for art is slowing. "My experience with the Carson City community is they have such an appreciation for art that I could fill every square inch of this town with art and they would still love to see more art coming in," McGuire said. For five days in September, that love will be on full display, on walls across the city, where artists will paint not just pictures, but stories — of brewers who came before, of a city proud of its heritage, and of a community discovering that the best gallery in town is the one you can walk through every day.