For Tennessee art lovers, the small town of Waverly is probably the last place they’d think to go to enjoy a mural.
The Walls Art Park is open seven days a week for anyone who wants to paint, or simply enjoy the area. It was designed to give artists a space to paint legally. The park hosts three art jams per year, including food trucks, vendors and an after party.
Now, the park, in part, serves as a memorial for flood victims. There are art pieces dedicated to residents including Mary Luten, Linda Bryant, 15-year-old Lilly Bryant, 7-year-old Lucy Lane Conner and 7-month-old twins Rileigh and Ryan Rigney. The August flood killed a total of 20 people — 19 of whom were in Waverly.
Paige Pfleger WPLN NewsLilly Bryant
“Everyone knows about our flood. So, when we had our jam, the artists knew that lives were lost,” says Kansas Klein, the park’s founder. “So they had kind of reached out to some of the families and said, ‘Hey, can I do a memorial of your daughter, of your grandmother?’”
Less than 5,000 people live in Waverly, but Klein says the park attracts artists from Chicago to Austin. He says the purpose of the park is to be an arts destination for visitors and the broader community.
The park features evolving works of art on large walls planted inside the woods. The murals are switched out every 30 days, which gives more people a chance to showcase their work.
Paige Pfleger WPLN NewsLucy Lane Conner
“A lot of public art artists are painting on trains, in abandoned buildings and under bridges,” Klein explains. “They don’t get much recognition for their art.”
The Walls Art Park, he says, is a place where community members can partner up with artists to learn more about their work. Residents can also request artwork that reflect the community, which is how the memorial to Rileigh and Ryan Rigney came about.
“Their father reached out to me because he knew I had the park,” he says. “He asked if any of my artists would do a memorial for his twins.”
Paige Pfleger WPLN NewsLinda Bryant
Klein says he then reached out to a few friends in Texas and invited them to Waverly. It took them two days to complete the painting.
“And then that afternoon, we called the parents up and presented the wall to them,” he says. “It was an emotional time for the parents and the artists.”
Klein also says that when some people think about graffiti, there is a stereotype that the work was done by “a kid with long hair.” The park, he says, serves as a way to show art lovers that murals are created by everyday people.
Paige Pfleger WPLN NewsA mural dedicated to Mary Luten sits at the outer edge of The Walls Art Park.
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