Long Beach Walls and Art Renzei
The Long Beach Walls and Art Renzei Festival is a dynamic celebration of public art and community connection, transforming Long Beach into a vibrant, open-air gallery. This week-long event brings together local and international artists to create large-scale murals, immersive installations, and interactive experiences that redefine urban spaces.
Through Long Beach Walls, the city’s walls become canvases for storytelling, cultural expression, and creative dialogue. Complemented by Art Renzei, the festival features innovative, site-specific installations that invite the public to engage with art in unexpected ways.
The festival also includes artist talks, community events, and guided tours, fostering a deeper connection between artists and audiences. By blending art, technology, and community, the Long Beach Walls and Art Renzei Festival inspires creativity, celebrates diversity, and strengthens the cultural fabric of Long Beach.
Cassy Leeman played a pivotal role in bringing the Long Beach Walls and Art Renzei Festival to life from 2021 to 2025 as its Regional Director. As the driving force behind its execution, she led the project, overseeing artist relations, installation logistics, funding, and day-of programming. Cassy curated the week-long experience, blending art, technology, and community to create unforgettable moments. During her tenure, she managed a team of 12 professionals, including creative designers, copywriters, production personnel, sponsorship coordinators, emerging technology experts, and PR and marketing specialists, ensuring seamless collaboration across all aspects of the festival.
Cassy’s contributions included collaborating with international artists to bring their visions to life while managing contracts and budgets, overcoming logistical challenges, and designing digital and in-person outreach strategies to drive community engagement and social impact. She also partnered with city officials, sponsors, and community leaders to ensure the festival’s seamless execution. Through her dedication, strategic vision, and ability to lead a diverse team, Cassy helped make the festival a resounding success year after year, leaving a lasting legacy of art, culture, and community connection in Long Beach.
2024 Long Beach Walls and
Art Renzei Festival
Platform for Youth
The 2024 Long Beach Walls and Art Renzei Festival celebrated the theme “Platform for Youth,” shining a spotlight on the creativity and potential of the next generation. This year’s festival brought together 21 artists from five countries, who transformed the city’s walls and public spaces into vibrant canvases of cultural expression.
The event featured large-scale murals that redefined urban landscapes, projection mapping on the iconic Queen Mary that blended art and technology, and interactive installations that invited the public to engage with art in playful and unexpected ways. Live community portraits captured the spirit and stories of Long Beach residents, while sculptural works and intricate wire art added depth and dimension to the festival’s offerings. Through these diverse artistic activations, the festival not only celebrated creativity but also inspired young minds and strengthened the cultural fabric of the community.
Featured in Longbeachize.
Long Beach, CA
2024
2023 Long Beach Walls and
Art Renzei Festival
Follow Your Bliss
The 2023 Long Beach Walls and Art Renzei Festival brought the theme “Follow Your Bliss” to life, transforming Long Beach into a vibrant, open-air gallery of large-scale murals, interactive installations, and immersive art experiences. The festival celebrated the joy of pursuing passions, uniting the community through creativity and connection.
The week-long event kicked off with an Welcome Ceremony at Long Beach Convention Center Cove, where artists, sponsors, and the public gathered to launch the 8th annual festival. Highlights included Movies at the Beach, a free screening of Back to the Future under the stars at Granada Beach, and the ‘Currents’ Group Exhibition, showcasing works from local and global artists at Open Gallery.
The Bike Mural Tour led participants through a colorful journey of past and present murals, while an Artist Talk with Lauren YS offered a behind-the-scenes look at her creative process. The festival closed with a lively Concert at Mosaic Downtown, featuring live music, food, and art, celebrating the transformative power of creativity.
With 25 artists from around the world, the festival united the Long Beach community, celebrating the transformative power of art and the shared pursuit of joy.
Featured in Los Angeles TImes, Up Magazine and The Hype Magazine.
Long Beach, CA
2023
2022 Long Beach Walls and
Art Renzei Festival
Stand Up
In a pivotal moment for women's rights, the 2022 Long Beach Walls and Art Renzei Festival launched its "Stand Up" theme as a direct response to the reversal of Roe v. Wade. This urgent, unapologetic celebration amplified the voices of women and marginalized creators through large-scale public art, transforming Long Beach into a canvas of resistance and hope.
For seven years running, the festival had established Long Beach as a global street art destination with 100+ murals across 40 square miles. But 2022 called for something more - we curated an all-women and non-binary lineup of international and local artists to create monumental works addressing equality, and collective power. Their murals became rallying points for the community.
As Executive Director, Cassy ensured these bold visions reached their full impact - navigating complex permits, coordinating with city organizations, and creating safe spaces for community expression. The result was more than an art festival: it became a landmark moment in Long Beach's cultural history, proving public art's power to respond, heal and mobilize when it matters most.
Featured in the LB Post and seen on Fox 11: Good Day LA.
Long Beach, CA
2022
2021 Long Beach Walls and
Art Renzei Festival
Rise • Play • Repeat
The 2021 festival marked Long Beach's creative rebirth after pandemic isolation, transforming the city through our "Rise • Play • Repeat" theme. Cassandra led two groundbreaking initiatives: restoring six vandalized murals across the city and debuting Art Renzei's beachfront installations along Alamitos Beach. These temporary coastal artworks – including sculptures on surrey carts, a reclaimed plexiglass house, and a seal crafted from found Long Beach materials – created a vibrant dialogue between urban and shoreline art.
The week-long celebration kicked off with a Welcome Party featuring live mural painting, screen-printing, and musical performances. Programming connected land and sea experiences, from an Artist Talk with James Jean , pplpleasr, and Jeff Staple discussing NFTs to bike tours of revitalized murals led by Nat Iosbaker. Evenings came alive with movie screenings on the beach, while mornings offered yoga sessions among the shoreline installations. The festival culminated in a VIP Dinner at the Aquarium of the Pacific, honoring the artists' contributions to the city's cultural revival.
By blending permanent mural restorations with temporary beach installations, the festival created spaces for both lasting legacy and spontaneous joy. As visitors moved between urban walls and coastal artworks, they rediscovered their city – and each other – through shared creative experiences that celebrated resilience, play, and renewal.
Featured in Press Telegram.
Long Beach, CA
2021
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