North Wichita, Kansas

Artist: Gleo

519 E 20th Street, North Wichita, Kansas

Video by: Searchorb Media

Video By: Great Big Story

The North Wichita Silo Art was painted by Gleo in 2020.

This amazing mural is reported to be the largest painted grain elevator in the world and is now in the Guinness world record. It took artist Gleo two years to complete the art work.

Gleo is well known Colombian street artist who was commissioned by Armand Minjarez, the project director and curator of the Horizontes Project.

Gleo's work shows people of colour in different sizes and positions – almost all of them seem to be looking to the horizon. A young woman in the middle represents Wichita. This Grain Elevator is located in the industrial corridor that separates the predominantly Latin American North End of the city from the historically Black Northeast.

This projects real focus is to highlight the communities of colour in North Wichita and the North East. The Horizontes project hopes that this can bring these two together.

This mural would not have been possible without the photographic elements used to kickstart the project. A panel composed of local artists, community organizers, and North Wichita residents, commissioned four local photographers of colour, Ashwin Govindarajan, Alexis Rivierre, Juan Carlos Garcia, and Xavier Leija, to collaborate on the Horizontes portrait project.

Garcia is currently a student at Wichita State, and the others are alumni. Collectively, the photographers shot portraits of actual citizens of the North End and North East Side. Many of the portraits ended up being the reference material Gleo used to design her mural.

What once was a dividing line between neighbourhood's, is now a catalyst for community pride and deepened connections.

Information Credit: https://www.horizontes-project.com/grain-elevator/