By Madeleine Graham
The Flint Public Art Project (FPAP) is launching a book series to showcase the hundreds of murals artists have painted on structures across the city since its founding over a decade ago.
“People have been requesting books of the murals,” Joe Schipani, former FPAP executive director, told East Village Magazine of why the nonprofit is pursuing the series.
While Schipani stepped down from his executive director role last year, he continues to be active on the FPAP board and works on some special projects, like the upcoming books.
According to Schipani, the series will feature three separate volumes.
The first will be titled “Flint Public Art Project Mural Project” and span 275 pages of mural photos and artists’ names; the second will be “Flint Public Art Project, Placemaking Through Murals” and feature behind-the-scenes stories of artists and their works; and the third book will be “Flint Public Art Project: Mural Poems,” which will be completed in coordination with Flint’s Southwestern Classical Academy, as the poetry portion of the FPAP’s work comes from the high school’s students.
As for the series’ sale, Schipani said FPAP would presell the books at $50 each “through a crowdfunding site” that will be posted on the Flint Public Art Project’s website on June 15, 2024.
“As soon as we raise the money to sell them, Totem Books will carry them,” he explained of the nonprofit’s expected sales model. “Once we raise the funding to buy 1,000 copies and get them in,” he added, sales will also take place through Amazon.com.
Before moving to Mexico in 2023, Schipani estimates he hosted around 150 artists for FPAP at his former home in Flint’s Carriage Town neighborhood.
Those artists — who came from roughly 20 countries, including Belarus, Canada, Japan, Nigeria, Peru, and the United Kingdom, Schipani said — painted over 300 murals throughout the city of Flint and surrounding areas.
When asked about which murals he favors, he noted: “The hardest question I’m asked is to pick my favorite murals. It’s like asking to pick your favorite child, because each mural is not only beautiful, but they also have amazing memories and magical moments tied into them for me.”
However, Schipani was willing to mention a few pieces that remain notable to him: a mural by Bandit that depicts the progression of life, located at Big Gunz Tattoos on the corner of Davison Road and Franklin Avenue, for one.
He also noted a mural by Malt; Johnny Fletcher’s mural on the former Flint Hard Cider building, which features a starry night background and a child in a makeshift robot costume and symbolizes the loss of imagination that today’s technology has sparked; Kevin Burdick’s bird and flower piece where MLK and Root St. meet downtown; and Aylo and Seca One’s mural on a former church at Gillespie and Buick Street.
Murals provide a way to give everybody a voice, Schipani said.
For those interested in touring FPAP’s murals in-person ahead of the book series’ release, the nonprofit has an ongoing partnership with PixelStix, which offers a map of current murals as well as a phone app that allows users to interact with the map and artworks.
This article also appears in East Village Magazine’s June 2024 issue.
