I'm here just outside of downtown South Bend, on here with April and Allie to talk about an artist talk and a mural walk.

So I've noticed in South Bend there is a lot of murals around.

So tell me a little bit about how many are there in the city, do you know or how many are around and.

Yeah.

And what exactly is going on.

Absolutely.

There are 17 unique murals all across downtown, South Bend.

So the 17 murals around the city, why are they even important to have I'm so glad you asked that.

They're actually part of a festival called Mural Mania.

This festival happens once a week during the summer, and it is the fourth year.

Mural mania is led by Alex Van Allen.

She's the artist and organizer, bringing different muralists from all over the US to make their mark around South Bend.

And so Allie, who is is open to as I just show up at a location and then walk around the city or how does that work?

Yeah.

So our event on Saturday, May is Older Americans Month.

So our goal is to make sure that older Americans are, involved in city events and feel welcome and feel like they can access all sorts of events and spaces.

So this event will take place in Howard Park.

And the idea is to hear from the artist, Alex Ann Allen, hear a little bit about her artistic process for inspiration.

And also, she's the organizer of Mural Mania.

So she gets together artists from all over the country to come to South Bend and beautify our city.

And I think it's important for people to, know, you know, who is behind all of that and also, to be able to see how they can walk to murals, on foot.

They don't have to drive.

You can go from Howard Park, to see a number of murals with, with just within a five minute walking distance, which, I think people might not know about.

So it's open to all ages.

But we do want to emphasize, that the, you know, that we want older, adults in South Bend to also feel welcome and engage.

I'm just wondering if you could, specify what older is, because I'm curious if I'm allowed to go or, you.

Well, first of all, it is open to all members of the public.

I want to get it on screen and exact age.

Okay.

Ali.

Well, the city's the city's age friendly initiative is really emphasizes all ages.

So a lot of times we think of something being family friendly as being open to younger people and children, but we also want to think about making spaces accessible to older people as well.

The the Who Counts says that's very subjective.

So, I think you can tell she works in politics for the mayor.

This is this is a great answer right now on screen.

I think we should have like, an, you know, the old Batman episodes where it just goes pow on screen.

I think you should do that with an age.

Yeah, well, generally AARP does say, 50 to 55 is sort of when you, when you become an older adult or when you get to Martins and they give you a senior know the senior discount might be a different age.

That's that's up to Martin.

No, no.

April, are there any that are your favorites?

I mean, you stand here and you look at them.

I mean, what is there to really look at?

I mean, why would people look at them?

Why would you go out and do this?

This is actually a really special location because we have five different murals.

Two of these are from the same artist Cameron Cameron board and the rest over here are by Brittany Efron.

And then the last one is Nico.

Nico, we'll wait here while you run down and check.

Oh, wait.

Yeah, it's actually okay.

Do you want me to actually go?

No.

I was like, I'll do it.

But yeah, it's a very special location.

We love that this has, like, different murals, like, all from, different artists.

And, we have a lot of different ones from around the city now, although this event is at Howard Park.

If you do want to see this, it's right beside Roselily, which is a local restaurant which, you know here as well, just outside of downtown South Bend.

So, Allie, what are their initiatives are going on to include?

Because a lot of older people start to get isolated.

And obviously this is a way to be part of a community as well.

Yeah.

Besides this or what time actually does this start on?

Yeah, yeah.

On Saturday this event starts at 10 a.m..

Okay.

And so we'll have the ability for people to even ask questions, with Alex Ann Allen.

So she'll give a short presentation and then we'll have a little bit of an interactive session ahead of going out for the for the walk with her.

In terms of other events that the city is doing, our venues, parks and our department actually does a lot of programing for older adults.

And so do a lot of the local organizations like beacon, Saint Joe health So I would just encourage people to, to interact with, websites.

We have an age friendly landing page at the City.

And we also have been passing out fliers at different events so people can, can get to know what's going on.

The city does a senior week every week through our venues, parks and arts department, and we also have senior aerobics, all sorts of different things, which, are available online at our, SBVPA website, which is parks.

Yeah, Venues Parks and Arts.

It's a lot of that days when you might when you said in an age friendly website, I just imagine the font is like 32 size 32, which will be perfect for my eyesight.

So so April again, why should why should people attend this?

Like, what is it about this that's so special?

There's one event.

I think it'll be really great to get people together, learn about the festival, and then also get engaged with the different create like, creative endeavors that the city is doing.

Alex is a wonderful person that is wanting to organize, especially for South Bend.

So we're grateful to have her and then also within downtown South Bend, to be able to be partners in this, the event will be a short presentation and then we'll go on a walk.

Like Allie was mentioning, a short walk.

So it'll be a nice way to engage with people of all ages and then get to see some artwork.

And I know that it's going to be a map as well, because obviously you're not going to take people to all 17 locations, but you want to leave them with that so they can do that in their own time.

Yeah, absolutely.

We'll have a map, highlighting the four different murals that we'll see around Howard Park.

That will be a five minute walk, but then we will also share the entire map, to be able to, be in a self-guided walk tour if people are interested to continue.

The map is also available in downtown South Bend.

Slash mural mania.

If the map is not a mural in itself, that was a waste of marketing opportunity.

What did you.

I don't know what.

No, I yeah, I just wanted to add that, you know, part of the initiative for Mural mania is also about beautifying our downtown.

So there is an element of, of welcoming people of all ages that has to do with just making a space more beautiful.

Downtown South Bend has really, really pushed the mural mania event and really pushed it through, and been a great leader on that front.

Alex and Alan has been an amazing organizer, and downtown South Bend has provided a lot of support.

And so we're really grateful for the partnership between the city, DTSB and Alex herself.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for showing me these lights and have a look at them.

I've driven by them a million times and never actually really looked at them, although I do love cardinals.

Yes, but thank you so much for being out here today.

Thank you for showing them and I hope lots of people show up.

So once again, when is the event?

Saturday, May 17th at 10 a.m. at Howard Park.

All right.

And if people want to get more details, I know it is online as well as you mentioned.

So there is a Facebook event.

Yes.

All right.

Just just get out of the house.

Stop staying home.

Great.