Destination Downtown Waynesboro lands $50K T-Mobile Hometown Grant to Beautify District

Posted on by Department of Housing and Community Development
Destination Downtown Waynesboro was presented with a $50,000 T-Mobile Hometown Grant on Wednesday, Oct. 1. (Photo courtesy: Destination Downtown Waynesboro)

Destination Downtown Waynesboro (DDW) is one of 25 small towns awarded $50,000 in the latest round of T-Mobile Hometown Grants.

If you were to visit downtown Waynesboro, you’d see the community’s effort to curate their own street art gallery similar to that of a modern art museum. It showcases the abstract, fantastic, and much more. The grant will support the annual Virginia Street Arts Festival, which aims to expand the city’s library of street art. Since 2014, the street art festival has brightened the streets of Downtown Waynesboro with live mural installations and a weekend full of family fun. Destination Downtown Waynesboro began hosting the festival last year and added three large murals to the downtown landscape during a weekend full of festivities.

Since the inception of the festival, 16 murals have been installed between the Waynesboro Main Street district and the locality at large.

“This Hometown Grant is a game changer for our arts festival,” said Meghan Swanson, acting President of Destination Downtown Waynesboro. “The funding allows us to take an iconic two-day event that already brings incredible energy to downtown and grow it into an exceptional experience that celebrates the arts and all that Waynesboro has to offer.”

To see these funds and the hard work of Destination Downtown Waynesboro in action, the next Virginia Street Arts Festival will take place on the weekend of May 16, 2026. Destination Downtown Waynesboro will add four large-scale murals to its growing collection of artwork and secure its status as a destination for street art.

This isn’t the first collaboration between T-Mobile and Destination Downtown Waynesboro this year. Over the summer, the streets of downtown Waynesboro were lit pink for two weeks to support local businesses after T-Mobile approached Destination Waynesboro to collaborate on a solar-powered light installation project.

Waynesboro receives temporary glow-up from T-Mobile (Photo courtesy: Destination Downtown Waynesboro)

In 2024, Destination Downtown Waynesboro was accepted into the Mobilizing Main Street Program and has actively pursued the Advancing Virginia Main Street designation.

Launched in 2021, the T-Mobile Hometown Grant is a competitive grant program awarding up to $50,000 to small towns and rural communities. Read Waynesboro’s announcement here, or see if your community is eligible to apply for this opportunity by clicking here.