Public Art - Table of Contents     .....................   Polish-American History in Buffalo

Welcome Wall
  751 Fillmore Ave., St., Buffalo NY 14212

By Keir Johnston and Ernel Martinez

Mural painted:	2017
Muralist:	Keir Johnston and Ernel Martinez, Philadelphia based
Building history:	Copacabana Jazz Club
Mural title:	“Welcome” in the 13 languages Broadway Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services outreach identified as representative of this diverse neighborhood: Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, English, Farsi, French, German, Polish, Seneca, Spanish, Somali, Urdu, and Vietnamese.
Materials:	Acrylic on Polytab
Mural sponsors:	Albright-Knox Art Gallery Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services Common Council Member David Franczyk
Location:	Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood

[Muralists] Johnston and Martinez solicited community participation in both the design and execution of this mural through a series of public meetings and public paint days. The artists created the work using sheets of Polytab, a nonwoven material also known as “parachute cloth,” which was then patched together like wallpaper to create a seamless installation. The flexibility of the material made it possible to work on the mural indoors and allowed Johnston and Martinez to bring the artmaking process out into the community. Each section of Polytab was marked in advance by the artists with an outline of the design, a kind of “paint-by-numbers” format that allowed individuals of all skill levels to come together and participate on the project simultaneously. - Albright Knox Art Gallery (online May 2020)

May 2020 photos Building formerly the Copacabana Jazz Club Three vertical details, from left to right, below: