Mesa Arts Center kicks off new season

Mesa Arts Center is launching a new season with a kick off festival on Sept. 9. The festival is themed “Make Your Mark,” based on a larger call to action to “make your mark in society.” Headlining Mesa Contemporary Art Museum’s fall season is the legendary provocateur Ron English, best known for blending American iconography with art history themes to create social and political commentaries on contemporary American society. Tiffany Fairall, Chief Curator at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, also joined in the discussion.

“Our season kickoff happens at 6 o’clock, from 6 to 10 o’clock, at the Mesa Arts Center on our campus. You can go to our website mesaartscenter.com for more information on that,” Fairall said. There are a lot of family oriented activities planned for everyone to enjoy such as: selfie stations, hands-on activities, artists demos, food trucks, live music and more.

“Make your Mark” theme

“I was inspired by going to Art Basel; we went to the graffiti museum there and the graffiti museum they had a whole display talking about the campaign against graffiti art and street art back in the 1980’s in New York,” Fairall said. “They were saying, ‘Make your mark in society and not on the walls’ was the slogan.”

She got inspiration from that theme and repurposed it to put back in the hands of street artists.

“I am considered the Godfather of street art, which once wasn’t a thing when I started and now it’s the biggest art movement in the history of the world, so that’s one thing I’m doing,” English said in regards to how he makes his mark.

Ron’s art

English started with liberating billboards, whereas most people at the time were liberating the subways. “I started repainting all the billboards in Texas with my own art, and that was sort of how I kicked off my career,” he said.

He further mentioned that since the beginning of his career, society has change a lot, and has become more accepting of street art where it once wasn’t.