celebrating the big picture street and film fest

Peoria, Illinois

Situation

The first-ever Big Picture Street and Film Festival in Peoria was conceived as a grassroots collaboration of artists and arts organizations. The goal: to celebrate the local creative scene and raise funds to hire more artists in schools, after-school programs, and community centers.

Solution

Artist and Big Picture Initiative president, Doug Leunig, turned to Britten with an idea: transform his mural depicting Abraham Lincoln’s famous 1854 Peoria speech condemning slavery into a 1500-square-foot mural. And Britten delivered—160’ of tough OVIO™ framework outlining four, 15-ounce front-lit vinyl panels printed with UV-resistant ink on a state-of-the-art HP Latex 3500 printer.

Impact

News outlets touted the mural, which still overlooks the Peoria courthouse square. As Big Picture media magazine observed, “Public art, a rising trend in cities and towns alike, offers intrinsic and instrumental value to communities; there’s the aesthetic value of the artwork itself, but it’s also a cost-effective way to drive economic revitalization through education, job creation, higher real estate value, and increased tourism.”