Wildlife artist Kate Fitzpatrick’s animals are all over Colorado. She’s added a starry-winged swan to a business in Fort Collins , painted prairie dogs on a window in Westminster , decked out an Englewood business with a galloping horse and adorned a Boulder wall with a bison .

Some of these works were created during mural festivals , week- or weekend long events where an artist is provided a wall, materials and a stipend to create a mural from start to finish. Mural painting is a longstanding strategy for community building and economic stimulus — the most widespread example is the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Program, a New Deal Project begun in 1935 that paid artists $23.50 per week and funded more than 2,500 murals around the country.

Mural festivals, though,

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