The artist lays on her mural of a cicada in Nash Square

Raleigh ArtBeats

Department of Transportation in Partnership with Raleigh Arts


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View the Murals Painting and Process Project History and Awards

Image Above: Elisabeth Flock, Raleigh ArtBeats 2020, southeast corner of Nash Square

Twenty-five artists are creating site-specific sidewalk murals in downtown Raleigh as part of Raleigh ArtBeats, a temporary public art project led by the City of Raleigh Department of Transportation (RDOT) and Raleigh Arts.

The artworks are unique, often playing with the surrounding landscape or infrastructure, and are all located within Downtown Raleigh’s 110-block municipal services district.

View the Murals

dinosaur drawn in chalk on a sidewalk

Our interactive story map tells you a little bit about each mural and artist. 

There are three easy ways to experience the sidewalk murals. 

  1. In-person
  2. View the interactive ArcGIS Storymap with location information
  3. See some of the murals and their locations in the slideshow below

Chaos Cat

Paul Friedrich

Intersection of Wilmington and Jones Streets

 

Know Where You Stand

Claire Alexandre

Intersection of Salisbury and Cabarrus Streets 

Love Flowers

Jose Cruz

100 block of S. Harrington Street

Elisabeth Flock

Southeast corner of Nash Square

Britt Flood

1 S. Wilmington Street

Lava Jump

Sam Greene

100 block of E. Jones Street

Chika Gujarathi

101 S. Blount Street 

Untitled

Sabrina Hurtado

Intersection of Hargett and McDowell Streets

Kristen Krumenaker

Northside of Lenoir Street between Salisbury and Fayetteville Streets

Freedom Now

David Moses

Intersection of Harrington and Jones Streets 

Pure Love

JP Jermaine Powell

Intersection of Davie and Wilmington Streets

Robert Quinn

Intersection of Martin and Fayetteville Streets

The Butterfly Effect

Brook Ramsey

127 W. Hargett Street

Three Heads Are Better Than None

Kelly Schrader

235 S. Salisbury Street

Muslimah Shareef

100 block of E. South Street

Susan Yuh

603 W. Morgan Street

Painting and Process

The City provides the paint, an ADA-compliant low VOC (volatile organic compounds) porch and floor enamel, demonstrated to have staying power from previous sidewalk mural installations. The paint is made by Sherwin Williams on Peace Street, whose paint technicians work closely with the artists to select and mix custom paint colors. RDOT’s Team Downtown Raleigh guides location choices, power washes the “canvas” to clear impediments and manages traffic control.

Project History and Awards

In 2018 the City of Raleigh launched Raleigh ArtBeats, a temporary public art project spearheaded by the City of Raleigh’s Department of Transportation (RDOT) and Raleigh Arts, with help from the Downtown Raleigh Alliance and Artspace.

Raleigh ArtBeats received an overwhelmingly positive public response and was awarded as one of the top 12 submissions in the American Planning Association Urban Design & Preservation Division’s 2019 Creative Placemaking Writing Competition. Raleigh Art Beats was featured in a publication showcasing the winners as part of the organization’s national conference in San Francisco.

In 2020, RDOT expanded the project from the original 15 artists to include an additional 25 artists for fall 2020 and spring 2021 installations.

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