When Monica Campana moved to the U.S. from Peru in 1998, she was looking for somewhere that felt like home. She found that sense of belonging in the world of street art, and 12 years later, she would help found Living Walls, a nonprofit organization harnessing the power of murals for good.
Living Walls started as a grassroots effort to organize muralists from around the world, and after a couple years of this organizing, Campana began to recognize who dominated these spaces: white male artists.
“After a few years of seeing that there weren’t a lot of people that looked like her, [Monica] recognized the power that she had in that role to be a little more intentional about the stories we’re sharing, the people we’re working with, and the diversity that is [represented] in the public space,” Tatiana Bell, the communications director for Living Walls, told Georgia Voice.
Today, the organization is using public art to catalyze conversations about social change. During our conversation, Bell was on site for a new mural the organization is working on: a piece in Decatur Square on reproductive justice (aptly timed, given the recent overturning and subsequent reinstatement of Georgia’s six-week abortion ban). Earlier this year, Living Walls unveiled a huge project: I Am Mine/We Are Ours, at the intersection of Arizona and Dekalb Avenues. It consists of work from six women and nonbinary artists across different cultural identities reflecting on radical love and self-assured identity as an act of resistance.
Along with the subject matter of Living Walls’ murals, the organization’s activism extends behind the scenes, as they give marginalized artists well-paid opportunities that are often gatekept from them.
“We really are noticing the power of taking up space in the public space like this — not only in communicating a message, but representing what it means to pay an artist really well, especially since contemporary art spaces are still very much white male-dominated,” Bell said. “What does it mean to give that paycheck to Black, nonbinary artists, or people who aren’t seeing themselves and seeing people like them become successful artists?”
The opportunities Living Walls offers are more than just a paycheck; they’re a chance for artists to have creative autonomy, to spread a message that means something more than paint on a wall. As for the impact? Living Walls’ murals connect people with their neighborhoods and communities, bringing them into the physical world and making art accessible to all.
“[The wall in Decatur I’m looking at] was one of the first walls that I saw when I was introduced to Living Walls; it was a mural by William Downs,” Bell said during our conversation. “At the time, I was working at the Zuckerman Museum of Art, which is an art gallery in Kennesaw, and I had seen William’s work there, but to see his work in a public space like this and knowing that it was something I could visit all the time, I was just really excited that this artist was taking up the space. At that time it was 2020, so I was getting connected to what public spaces I could come and sit and be in.”
After 14 years of providing accessible and diverse art to Atlanta, Living Walls isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Work from Living Walls has extended beyond Atlanta, to Birmingham, Miami, and even as far as Paris and Mexico City, and they will continue to grow and foster the power of visual storytelling to make Atlanta and the world beyond a better — and more beautiful — place.
If you’re a queer artist interested in working with Living Walls, visit livingwallsatl.com/work-with-us. To keep up with the organization, follow it on Instagram @livingwallsatl.