MURALS CAN make a drab, broken wall beautiful and bring a dreary city to life again. The Coffee County-born nonprofit DO. MORE. ART.-events (DMA-events) has been working tirelessly to bring beautiful wall art to not only Manchester and Tullahoma, but across Tennessee. DMA-events has installed over 40 large-scale murals in more than a dozen communities throughout Tennessee and is in the process of installing two more in Tullahoma and Sweetwater.
“At the heart of our work, we’re devoted to improving communities across the country through art installations and education, in the pursuit of a prettier world,” said president and co-founder, Kristin Luna, “Public art is a unifier—it’s free for everyone to access, regardless of age, race or socioeconomic status—which is why we find it so important to champion art in communities like Manchester and Tullahoma.”
Luna, a Tullahoma native herself, said that she and her husband came up with the idea after moving to a historic house in downtown Manchester.
“Through our travels, we naturally gravitated to towns and neighborhoods that had come alive through public art,” Luna said. “We wanted to infuse that sense of placemaking in Manchester.”
DMA-events’ work began in 2018, after they arranged for a Southern magnolia flag mural on the side of Wheeler Construction & Restoration in Manchester.
“We had intended to do just one mural and that be it,” Luna said. “We both work full-time as journalists and also have a company, Odinn Media, that handles the tourism marketing for many destinations across the South, so we already have jobs we love. But many Manchester locals asked us to do more art after that first mural, so we found ourselves starting a nonprofit committed to doing just that.”
Most recently, DMA-events began an initiative, “Walls for Women,” to honor the 19th Amendment Centennial, in 2020. Those murals include “Wisteria Maiden” in Tullahoma, “Punch Bug” in Centerville, and “Lady Justice” in Columbia, among others. In 2021, Tullahoma native, Collin Shuran, produced a documentary that chronicled the project titled “Walls for Women.”
“‘Walls for Women’ is what brought us national attention,” Luna said. “We were covered nationally in more than 50 stories, by publications like Parade, Forbes, and Food + Wine, as well as the recipients of the Tennessee Daughters of the American Revolution state award for media and public relations.”
Luna said that they’ve seen the art of the murals drive tourism, stimulate economic development, and improve the well-being of the community – as well as create a sense of identity in rural areas and forgotten communities. In addition, DMA-events brings a wide variety of artists and art styles to Coffee County. Some of the artists are from Coffee County, like Manchester natives, Jennifer Hodge and Sarah Pearson, and Tullahoma native, Jenalee Ipock, but many come from other states or even countries like Japan.
“Murals drive more attention to the business and community and as a result, provide ongoing marketing value that you just can’t buy,” Luna said. “The question should be: Why aren’t all rural communities championing mural programs?” GN
