Hidden Gems: Meet Ami Harrington of SpraySeeMO Mural Festival

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ami Harrington.

Hi Ami, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Absolutely. So back in early 2017, there was a lot of news and excitement about the upcoming Great American Solar Eclipse on August 21st and that KC (our hometown) would be one of the best viewing places in the entirety of the middle of the US to see and experience it. We decided it was a great time to take advantage of the extra national attention and both Jason Harrington and Mark Allen got to work planning a multi-day art festival that revolved around both murals and street art (curated by Jason) as well as other alternative forms of art centered around the eclipse (curated by Mark). Being influenced by large mural parks and street art hot spots like Wynwood in Miami and Bushwick in Brooklyn, Jason sought to bring in some of the best painters from around the country, and even the world, to commemorate the short but monumental 3-minute event and make it last a little longer. Originally called SolaNoir (for the eclipse), the mural festival took place from August 17-21st, featured a total of 20 new murals by 26 different artists (14 visiting & 12 local), and hosted events like 3 gallery exhibitions, 2 nights of live music, and even a coffee collaboration!

It went so well and had such an amazing impact on everyone in the Crossroads and the artists who participated that we decided to make it into an annual thing. Of course, we had to come up with a new name for it since there wasn’t always going to be visible eclipses every summer/fall, haha. That’s when Jason came up with SpraySeeMO – which is perfect since it rhymes with KCMO! So the 2018 event ended up featuring a total of 27 more artists (15 Visiting & 12 Local), another group exhibition, and even a custom painted art car!

Since 2018, we have organized and hosted 5 additional mural festivals (including one in Mid-City Los Angeles!), but we’ve also had a partnership from the very beginning, in 2017, with our sister-festival in Miami, FL, called aWall Mural Projects. AWall is founded and directed by Registered Artist and specializes in bringing world-class murals to schools throughout the City of Miami during the massive Art Basel event every year. Just in Kansas City, SpraySeeMO has helped facilitate over 150 large-scale murals by 75 different artists, representing 20 US states and 5 countries: Brazil, Bulgaria, New Zealand, Mexico, and Canada!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s definitely not been a smooth road, haha, but that hasn’t deterred us from our mission of bringing stellar talent to the people of Kansas City. The first obstacle popped up after the 2019 festival while planning for the next year, 2020. The main sponsor from the 2019 event wanted to also sponsor the 2020 event – which was going to be so amazing to not have to start fundraising from scratch again! But shortly afterwards it was brought to our attention that they were advertising the event without our knowledge or permission and with their contact info listed. We also learned that they had called our other sponsors and in-kind donors to let them know that we had ‘gone out of business’ and that they would be taking over in our place – which of course was a straight up lie! Thankfully a friend of ours had warned us of some of the shadier things the founder of that business who sponsored us had done in the past, so while this came as a shock and an absolutely frustrating issue to deal with, we were somewhat prepared for it on a legal level. Long story short: trademark your business/brand!! Copyrights alone are not enough. I am beyond grateful that we had invested in trademarking our name and logos before working with them, or else this could have ended quite differently.

So the second big hurdle was of course the pandemic. After going through everything above with our former sponsors we felt it was important to keep a line of continuity going if we could. We planned the 2020 SpraySeeMO Mural Festival for later in the year and only invited back artists who had participated in prior years since we had worked with them prior and developed good relationships with them, and plus they knew and trusted the other artists who would be participating. We kept it tight knit and took a page out of the NBA’s book, keeping the artists in their own ‘bubble’ for the duration of the event. Everyone tested before coming in, and we limited public events to just self-led walking tours that people could do on their own or with their friends and family. Overall it went really well and was a highlight of the year, giving artists and the people here in KC something positive and uplifting to look forward to and experience in such a trying time.

Other than that, it has just been the usual types of speed bumps one encounters when getting their grassroots/small business off the ground and running. We still run into some little issues here and there as pertains to the former sponsor matter since they started their own small mural event in town, but at the end of the day there are more murals going up and artists getting paid so that’s a positive; plus they don’t have the depth or breadth of a global artist network as we do, since we are ourselves professional artists and this is our specialty.

We’ve been impressed with SpraySeeMO Mural Festival, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Yes, we’d love to! So in short, SpraySeeMO is the premier mural festival in Kansas City. It is a dynamic week-long public art experience featuring a diverse mix of world-class muralists from across the globe who transform buildings and neighborhoods with their impactful work. SpraySeeMO is an invitational-style mural festival that selects artists from varying backgrounds, geographical locations, and artistic styles in a manner that promotes inclusiveness, excellence, and the strong, untamed individuality that ripples all throughout this city and is currently making KC a top destination. As mentioned a moment ago, one thing that really sets us apart is the incredibly large network of amazing street artists and muralists from around the world that we have to draw on.

Once a year, participating neighborhoods throughout Kansas City are beautifully transformed nearly overnight, as highly skilled muralists bring their large-scale visions to life on the sides of buildings where their impact can be felt resonating throughout the community for years to come. Attendees of the week-long event can enjoy walking the neighborhoods, either self-led or guided via group tours, and witness first-hand the creation of these massive art pieces as the artists are painting each day. The week of the festival is full of other engaging activities such as the annual SpraySeeMO Art Exhibition, artist meet-n-greets and community conversation panels where the public can directly interact with the artists, and lively entertainment from musicians, bands, maker pop-ups, and art battles – almost all the festival events are free and completely open to the public.

Another purpose of hosting this extraordinary week-long mural festival each year is to allow the participating artists to have the creative license to express themselves fully (something artists in the public realm rarely get to enjoy!) and to continue to grow and propel this city’s dynamic public arts culture through spectacular and immersive fine art murals accessible to all. Our mission is to continue to grow and propel Kansas City’s diverse art scene through murals and street art that promote creative expression and exploration on a large, public scale – accessible to all at any time, any day, any way. One of the main goals from the beginning has been to bring world-class talent and murals to Kansas City to share with the people here so they can experience these incredible artists’ work without needing to travel elsewhere, while also supporting and promoting the many talented local artists here as well. This also allows for the cross-pollination of local and visiting artists, who have the opportunity to meet and share ideas, techniques, and generally inspire one another in fresh, meaningful ways.

As far as what we’re most proud about, both Jason and I are born and raised Kansas Citians – and we both never thought we’d end up staying here long-term! We always felt the need to leave town in order to experience fresh, big, new ideas in art and different styles and techniques by artists; traveling to larger cities like Chicago, LA, and NYC to feed our creative needs. Jason did actually move away for about a decade, to Chicago, where he went to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and also where he picked up graffiti and developed his street art style. Like I said, I never thought I would end up living in KC permanently (at least so far), but here I am still because this city has grown in huge ways to meet many of those needs I mentioned. And it’s not just me – in the last 2 years alone, we have heard from so many people (artists and non-artists alike) that they have moved here, or moved back, because of the murals. This event adds tremendously to KC’s burgeoning identity as a top place to live in the US, and also creates a huge economic impact to local businesses and the residents who own them. I am very humbled and proud to be in the position to help out both my hometown and the exceptional artists we work to put on this phenomenal event every year.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I’d say it’s definitely staying true to ourselves and putting the integrity of the art and artist first.

We measure success first and foremost by the artists’ experience: are they properly set up, do they have everything they need each day to be successful themselves, how can we make their time here the absolute best that KC has to offer? Secondly, we measure success by the impact of the murals themselves: is the building owner and tenant happy with and move by the work, did the public come out and enjoy the events and painting process, are the murals engaging long term? Overall each and every year continues to blow us away. The support we receive from our Crossroads neighbors and throughout all the other neighborhoods and parts of the City we paint in has been so wonderful. And of course the artists are just astounding – they just keep getting better and raising the bar even higher! We are so grateful to be in this position of helping them express their truest selves, on such a large scale, to the folks here and the world at large.

Pricing:

• Astro Cap Sponsor – $25,000
• Fat Cap Sponsors – $10,000
• Pink Dot Sponsors – $5,000
• Skinny Cap Sponsors – $2,500
• Stock Cap Sponsors – $1,000

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sprayseemo.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sprayseemo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sprayseemo/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SpraySeeMO
• Other: https://upper-level-gallery-kc.square.site/

Image Credits
1. Key Detail, in progress for SpraySeeMO 2024, photo by Ami Harrington
2. Alex Senna, in progress for SpraySeeMO 2024, photo by Ami Harrington
3. JEKS, detail of finished mural for SpraySeeMO 2024, photo by Ami Harrington
4. Osiris Rain, finished mural for SpraySeeMO 2024, photo by Ami Harrington
5. Farid Rueda, finished mural for SpraySeeMO 2024, photo by Artist
6. Queen Andrea, in progress for SpraySeeMO 2024, photo by Ami Harrington
7. Rif Raf Giraffe and Phybr, in progress for SpraySeeMO 2024, photo by Ami Harrington
8. Kiptoe, finished mural for SpraySeeMO 2024, photo by Ami Harrington
9. Sebastian Coolidge, in progress for SpraySeeMO/SolaNoir 2017, photo by Jason Harrington