POWWOW is an international mural arts festival founded by Jasper Wong in Hong Kong in 2009. In 2010, the first edition of POWWOW as a week-long mural arts festival was held in Honolulu, Hawaii. The festival has since exhibited in 17 cities worldwide with the purpose of city beautification and community building. Past festivals have also featured local restaurants, partnerships with local sports teams, illuminated art installations, and musical performances from artists such as Eminem.
While POWWOW shares the name of the Native American Pau Wau gathering, the festival's name originates combining the "Pow" of comic book action bubbles with the "WOW" of a reader's reaction.
In April 2020, POW! WOW! celebrated its tenth anniversary by releasing a 256-page hardcover book through Paragon Books. All international editions of the festival are represented through a photo reportage of a mural created there at least once.
Notable participants Amy Sol Shepard Fairey Allison "Hueman" Torneros
Festival years Festival Location Festival YearsNotes POW! WOW! Hawaii Kaka'ako District, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. 20112019 POW! WOW! Long Beach Long Beach, California, U.S. 20152020 POW! WOW! Worcester Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S. 20162019 POW! WOW! DC NoMa neighborhood, Washington, D.C., U.S. 20162019 POW! WOW! San Jose San Jose, California, U.S. 20172019 POW! WOW! Korea Seoul, South Korea 20172019 POW! WOW! Rotterdam Rotterdam, The Netherlands 20182020 POW! WOW! Cleveland Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. 2020
References
External links POW! WOW! Worldwide website POW! WOW! DC