Lately, murals have been springing up all over the Commonwealth! You may have recently asked yourself, is there a building or wall that is already painted and sticking out like a sore thumb in my community? It could be time to think about how to liven it up with a new large-scale public artwork that helps tell the story of the community. After the location, budget and subject matter have been decided, the next step is choosing an artist, but it’s important to secure subject matter experts!

“We have always approached [murals] from the standpoint of the subject matter and then researching the best muralists to interpret it. For example, we found a muralist who specialized in painting botanicals for our daffodil mural, another for our TC Walker mural because he was so good at depicting African American history, and another on who was great with wildlife, floral and fauna to do our watermen mural.”

– Jenny Crittenden, Executive Director, Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust

Some examples of Main Street muralists who work and, mostly, live in Virginia include:

• Nico Cathcart
• Ellen Elmes
• Ham Glass
• Michelle Hollender
• Louise Jones a.k.a Ouzi
• Michael Kirby
• Kotis Street Art
• Matt Lively
• Mending Walls RVA
• Michael Rosato
• Ed Trask
• Ross Trimmer
• Amy Bartlett Wright

Know someone who is missing? Email us at mainstreet@dhcd.virginia.org so that we can update this list!

TC Walker Mural | Michael Rosato (Artist) | Gloucester Village

A New Dawn Mural | Nico Cathcart (Artist) | Hopewell Downtown Partnership