Instead of going on their honeymoon, Erin Salazar and Chris Morrish channeled their energy into starting a new non-profit organization. Called The Exhibition District, it pays working artists professional wages for professional work with the goal of making San Jose the cultural destination of Silicon Valley.
Inspired by dynamic public art in cities like Berlin, Detroit and San Francisco, the Exhibition District is all about creating “place-based, high-impact art.” Nowhere was that as apparent as the first mural we visited on a SPUR tour in May, the project’s first, and largest. Covering the better part of a block, the mural shows people hard at work constructing and repairing buildings, bridges and more, befitting its location on the wall of the Workingman’s Emporium, a store that sells apparel for people who work in construction and building industries.
Over the last few months, the Exhibition District has covered over thousands of square feet of beige walls with colorful murals. As we walked on our tour, Erin explained her motivation for the project: “I’m an artist and people would always expect me to take “exposure” as a form of payment. But exposure doesn’t pay the rent.”
