Mark Borenstein Quoted in Worcester Telegram’s “Politics and the City: POW! WOW! mural project steps back from city’s canvas”

August 29, 2022

After five festivals in the past six years, approximately 200 massive murals and innumerable buckets of paint, POW! WOW! Worcester is taking a step back to determine what they want the event to look like in the future. Mark Borenstein, who volunteers for the festival and helped incorporate the nonprofit that organizes the event, spoke with the Worcester Telegram about the organization’s plans.

“We spent years operating on the presumption that we would just keep adding murals, because it’s exciting, fun and great for the neighborhood,” Mark said. “Now we’re taking a step back and looking at the inventory of artwork and making sure that we honor the artwork, the community where we’ve installed the artwork, and honor the city in what we’ve created.”

The biggest challenge is how to make the festival — a volunteer effort that needs to raise money every year in order to happen — sustainable.

“It’s difficult in and of itself to organize a festival and bring in artists from all over the world,” Mark said. “To fundraise on top of that and then maintain murals after that, it’s a lot for an all-volunteer organization.”

Continue reading “Politics and the City: POW! WOW! mural project steps back from city’s canvas” on the Worcester Telegram website (subscription required).