For the fifth year, the Colfax Canvas Mural Fest looks to bring art and beauty to the Aurora Cultural Arts District on East Colfax Avenue with a collection of vivid murals on local businesses.

The festival began with five, large-scale murals being spray painted on businesses throughout the East Colfax sector, with 11 artists — 10 local and one from Atlanta — leading the way.

The two-week effort then culminates in the festival on Saturday, bringing together the community for a free block party at Fletcher Plaza from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. The festival will include guided walking tours, a car show, a food court containing local chefs and breweries and other family activities.

Both the murals and festival are based around one sole focus: bringing together an often overseen community through art and kinship.

“It was created as a way to really bring the community together and to make sure we were showcasing this incredibly vibrant neighborhood,” Aaron Vega, executive producer for Colfax Canvas Mural Festival, said of the fest’s genesis in 2020.

Vega — who also works as the facilities coordinator for The People’s Building art and culture center in the Aurora Cultural Arts District — has been working and living in the neighborhood for nearly seven years.

He noted that he often heard the neighborhood was blighted, which, to him, was entirely untrue.

The neighborhood is rich with mom-and-pop businesses, often owned by immigrants or refugees, representing the over 160 languages spoken in Aurora public schools, he said.

Vega, along with Ryan Foo and Kristin Sutter, asked the question: How can we help change the narrative of this neighborhood?

“I think the narrative is tricky on East Colfax. It’s been a low-income area for a long time. There’s a lot of blue-collar working class folks who are just working really hard to make a better life for their families,” Vega said. “When you’ve got that many languages spoken, it’s hard to literally talk to each other. So, art, culture, food becomes a language in and of itself. If we can really bring people together through the arts and make sure their stories are getting told, I think it’s easier to have some of the harder conversations that we’re trying to have as a society in general right now.”

And the murals, now reaching over 30 in the area since the festival’s inception, showcase that diverse community, representing the cultures and stories untold in the region.

Each year’s artists are selected by a DEIA committee made up of local business owners, residents, sponsors and artists, often weighing Aurora locals heavily in their decision. There were over 130 applications for this year.

All artists are compensated equally, regardless of mural experience.

Once chosen, the artists are paired up with other artists and the building owners for planning.

“We’re making sure that the artists are working together on their designs, along with the building owners,” Vega said. “They end up coming up with a design that really melds the business, the neighborhood, the artist’s vision together. That’s a gorgeous thing because it represents the neighborhood. That’s what this neighborhood is like.”

The Vintage Theater, for example, will be receiving its first Colfax Canvas mural this year — despite being heavily involved in the festival since its start.

In a collaborative twist, the theater, which provides art to the community through plays and other performances, is now part of another artistic endeavor.

“The more art in the neighborhood, I believe, the happier the people are who live there,” Margaret Norwood, executive director of the Vintage Theater, said. “It feels like the spaces are being taken care of and loved and given in support of the community and not just buildings all about their own selves.”

Norwood, looking at the mural displayed on the theater’s parking lot wall, showed all smiles.

The mural, a collaborative effort between local artists J. “Bird” Hernandez and Rachel “Dreamscape” Dinda, spans the large wall with sunset colors, strikingly vivid animals and desert fauna.

“There is something so hopeful and joyful,” Norwood said of the mural. “The art itself is so beautiful. The colors are so beautiful. It almost feels like relief.”

“We just wanted to create a good omen for the area because it’s going through so much change,” Hernandez said. “We just kind of focused on the Native tribes that were here before us on the Front Range.”

An eagle, for example, looking proud toward the sky, represents strength for the community, Hernandez said.

For Hernandez, the mural is the largest he’s ever done and his first time being a part of the festival. He hopes it will help him get even more connected to the local art community, something he said is already very strong.

“Having these little things make it a little nicer walk to work, or walk to wherever you’re going for your daily tasks,” he said. “It just helps brighten up your day, hopefully.”

“People don’t see the beauty of the neighborhood when they drive through,” Vega added.

He said that the stories often told on the news, or the visuals of those just passing by, paint the wrong tale of the culturally diverse area, which he likened to veins going through a circulatory system.

“It’s just stunning, the lifeblood of the community pumping back into the neighborhood,” he said.

The five murals will be completed on Saturday at the following businesses:

• Mango House
• Scorpion Tax
• DIA Market
• Vintage Theater
• Second Dawn Brewing

For more information about the festival, visit ColfaxCanvas.com.