HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Ceiling Art

Murals

Each album mural is composed of 8 different panels each painted by a different artist.


Here is a gallery of each of the current painted albums. Click each album mural below to learn more.


Guide

Artists

Thank you to all of our artists who helped contribute to these murals. You can learn more about them here.

Background

Opened on November 17, 2018, Kelly Brewing Company in downtown Morgan Hill not only offers fabulous hand-crafted, open fermentation ales made on premise, it also offers visitors an amazing display of original art on its spacious twenty-foot vaulted ceiling.


When owner and brew master Ross Kelly leased the former dance studio, he made sure he could accommodate his brewery operations, first and foremost, but admits he was attracted to the unique ceiling where he would house his pub. Inspired by his European back-packing excursions ten years earlier, he immediately saw the potential for art.


“I visited lots of museums and ceiling art, including the Sistine Chapel,” Kelly said. “That experience stayed with me.”


After opening the brewery, Kelly found that conversations tended to echo in the cavernous pub, creating a near deafening sound level, particularly on busy nights. To soften the noise, he decided to cover the ceiling in acoustical sheets. He knew this could be the opportunity to install art but wasn’t sure how to proceed.



As Kelly focused on his brewing, neighboring downtown artist and free-lance writer Dan Craig dropped by to welcome him to the neighborhood. The subject of the ceiling mural came up and Craig offered to help.


For the theme, Kelly chose to replicate his favorite record album covers growing up. It was discovered that joining two acoustic sheets would create a nearly symmetrical eight-foot square - the perfect scale for the standard vinyl album. Craig designed a schematic of the entire ceiling, calculating enough area to place sixteen albums. Handpicked by Kelly, the first mural installation was Parliament’s Mothership Connection, unveiled at a public exhibition on May 18, 2019. As the saying goes, the rest is history.



“I chose albums not only for the cover designs but also for the music that impacted me growing up,” Kelly stated. “To me, it’s a way of recognizing influential musicians.”


Putting their heads together, a plan took shape. Rather than scaffolding the room for artists to awkwardly paint the high ceiling overhead, the acoustical sheets could be cut in sections that the artists could paint in their studios. Kelly would treat and cut the panels and, along with his friend and master carpenter Brandon Kuskie, install the finished sections. Craig would recruit the artists, develop the process and oversee the completion of the mural.


Six to eight artists participate in each mural. Painting a pre-gridded panel, artists work independently of one another. After the painted sections are installed a public unveiling is held (before the Covid-19 restricted public gatherings). Interestingly, the artists present would be seeing the finished installation for the first time, along with the attending guests.


“I took on this project because I was attracted to its broad scope and the challenge it presented,” Craig reflected. “I stayed with it because I enjoy working with Ross.”


Maintaining the current pace of one every six weeks, this phase of the project is expected to be complete in the spring of 2021. Following that, Kelly and Craig are discussing ideas to fill in the remaining spaces on the ceiling.


“It’s surely not the Sistine Chapel,” Craig mused, “but I’d wager it’s the closest you’ll ever see in a California brewery.”


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