POW! WOW! Worcester is back for its third year. The mural festival has brought art and color to many parts of Worcester, and there is more to come Aug. 31-Sept. 9. This year’s installation will include new large-scale murals, tours, events and more. POW! WOW!’s mission is to “activate, beautify and give back” to the Worcester community.

POW! WOW! was started in 2010 in Hawaii by artist Jasper Wong. Che Anderson, project manager and staff assistant to Worcester’s city manager, saw POW! WOW! in Hawaii and saw the possibilities for Worcester. Anderson and co-founders of Worcester POW! WOW! traveled to Hawaii at the end of 2015 to pitch Worcester as the idea for the next POW! WOW! They were successful, and POW! WOW! Worcester is now back for its third year.

Last year, POW! WOW! Worcester transformed Elm Park Community School with murals on 19 of the school’s exterior facades. The murals are now used as a teaching tool for students to learn about and experience art.

This year, even more schools will be painted, thanks to POW! WOW!’s successful fundraising. POW! WOW! needed to raise $50,000 to receive a matching donation from MassDevelopment, which works with private- and public-sector clients to increase economic development. Through crowdfunding, POW! WOW! exceeded the goal.

Murals will be painted on Jacob Hiatt, Elm Park Community, Chandler Elementary and Chandler Magnet schools. These murals aim to bring beauty to the schools and expose young students to international art.

“There have been so many studies done showing the connections between a visibly engaging environment to attendance to achievement outcome to various emotional and personality improvements. I think from many different vantage points, art just makes sense with anything related to a school system. That’s why we were so thrilled that the Worcester Public Schools wanted to continue this partnership,” POW! WOW! Director Lisa Drexhage said.

It is important to expose children to art but, Drexhage said, more specifically, “working with the Worcester Public School System has such a critical importance…given tight budgets, it’s not necessarily the fullest of budgets when you’re looking across the school system. The public schools do an amazing job with their arts program in general, and what POW! WOW! wants to do is to just to help supplement that.”

In addition to the elementary schools that will take part, the 2018 campaign will also feature at least 10 new large-scale murals throughout the city. There will also be various exhibits, including permanent art installations in public spaces and makeovers of empty storefronts by artists. POW! WOW! has not limited its exhibits to only murals. The goal is to integrate art throughout Worcester and bring beauty to all spaces.

As for the murals themselves, POW! WOW! will be encouraging the community to get out and see the art with self-guided tours. “

We will have what we call a passport this year. The passport we put out during each festival year. It will be able to show you past mural sites as well as the current mural sites for this year’s festival,” Drexhage said. “Many of the downtown murals are very walkable, and we would certainly promote that sort of engagement, especially during the festival. Because, you never know…there may be some more murals popping up while you’re out walking on the tour.”

Passport-holders can find all the mural locations on their passports and get their passport stamped at each mural they visit. People are encouraged to get as many stamps in their passports as possible. This is not only in an effort to view all the murals, but stamps can actually help passport-holders get rewards and discounts at participating local businesses.

POW! WOW! plans to also have more guided tours this year. These will introduce tour-goers to the festival, the artists and the background of the murals.

Natalie Volo