Art Republic 2017

All images by Toni Smailagic / IG @ToniSmailagic + @Cre8Jax 

Art Republic was back for their second year in Jacksonville and I had a chance to document the two weeks of activities with them! Most people learned about AR over the past year because of the dozen or so murals that came up around the urban core. This year continued, not just with mural installations, but with a techism piece, a fashion show, and a lecture series. 

The most fascinating part was really the interactions between the artists and the residents of Jacksonville. Learning their background stories as artists, as well as how they drew conclusions on what they would leave as a permanent impression on Jacksonville and how much thought went into choosing everything from the colors to the placement. Many of the artists, that had time left over, explored Jacksonville and dove into the history of Northeast Florida vowing to make this an annual trip.

A huge thank you goes to Jessica Santiago and the AR team for making this happen, as well as the artists I personally had a chance to talk to from the techism piece : Krista Kim, Miguel Chevalier, Fabian Forban, and REO, and the fashion show : Alex Vinash (designer) 

* To note - These are not all the images, but a narrowed down version of a few per event. These are also not images not of the murals, which are finishing up now. There will be a separate post with pictures / addresses of those *

Locations pictured in order : 927 Events , 100 N. Laura (9th floor), MOCA, Hotel Palms , Prime Osborn Convention Center