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Your Unofficial Guide to Mural Magic Across the U.S.

America, the beautiful.

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Asheville, N.C.

Atlanta, ga..

This bold 'n’ gold work-in-process by Neuzz is one of 100+ public murals on display throughout metropolitan Atlanta, courtesy of the non-profit, Living Walls . The organization’s mission is to "create intentional, thought-provoking public art to inspire social change and activate public spaces." Living Walls has aided in establishing Atlanta as an internationally celebrated street-art hub, hosting conferences for both artists and scholars from across the globe. See It: 384 Edgewood Avenue NE

Austin, Texas

Baton rouge, la..

The Walls Project is a non-profit established in 2012 with the mission to "stimulate the creative arts economy by delivering public works of art that inspire urban and rural beautification, dialogue and unity." And with countless color-clad buildings across Baton Rouge, we consider this a mission accomplished. Visit their website to scroll through TWP's portfolio , plus access a map of their many mural masterpieces. See It: 329 Florida Street

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Charleston, s.c..

This technicolor floor mural by artist Douglas Panzone leaves a lasting impact on students living in College of Charleston’s George Street Apartments. We all agree — student living has never looked lovelier (or more IG-worthy) than it does here. Make a stop by the CofC campus to see the spectrum of colors in person. See It: 34 St. Philip Street

Charlotte, N.C.

Cleveland, ohio, denver, colo..

Why leave lipstick affirmations on your bathroom mirror when you can walk past a wall like this every day, instead? Artists Pat Milbery and Jason T. Graves joined forces to gift a powerful message of positivity for Denver residents and visitors. We imagine that this rainbow display warms spirits during the chilliest of morning commutes.

Detroit, Mich.

Motor City is making a serious comeback on the art scene with murals and galleries aplenty around town. A must-see stop on our list? The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit , MOCAD for short, located in the trendy Midtown area. The museum exterior showcases a fresh, funky mural that continuously changes, while the interior presents the public with art that "contextualizes, interprets, educates and expands culture, pushing us to the edges of contemporary experience." See It: 4454 Woodward Avenue

Las Vegas, Nev.

Has an abandoned building ever appeared more inviting than this black-and-white beauty? Located on 7th Street in downtown Las Vegas, this funky, futuristic display is guaranteed to stop you in your tracks and bring you a wealth of ‘likes’ on social media. Access a map of the must-see mural works across Sin City.

Little Italy, N.Y.

Los angeles, calif., miami, fla..

What’s black, white and "WOW" all over? One word: Wynwood. Considered a true mecca for making mural masterpieces, the Wynwood Walls program has covered more than 80,000 square feet of Miami walls since the program formed in 2009. The Wynwood Building , seen here, is in the center of the Wynwood Arts District and is a highly unique office and retail building for Miami’s flourishing creative community. See It: 2750 N.W. 3rd Avenue

Nashville, Tenn.

Music City is breaking its chains from its old, dusty, country-music stereotype and quickly becoming America’s "it" town. A large part of Nashville’s evolution is thanks to the many street artists and muralists who have created stunning public displays, like the one pictured here, located in the trendy Gulch neighborhood. Explore the many murals and artists local to the city through Nashville's Walls Project .

Oakland, Calif.

Oakland is proud and rightly so. This California city is home to a bustling, boundary-pushing art scene and a community that pours their every effort into seeing it prosper. If you're passing through, be sure to check out the non-profit organization Oakland Art Murmur . Their website has information on free walking tours, gallery exhibits and an interactive map for must-see murals around town.

Philadelphia, Pa.

Entitled "Legendary", this Philadelphia mural pays tribute to the city’s Grammy-winning icons, The Roots. This extraordinary work is one of many created by the nation’s largest public art program, Mural Arts Philadelphia . MAP has brought artists and communities together for more than 30 years to collaborate and create murals that transform public spaces. Their belief? "Art ignites change." Learn more about the Mural Arts Philadelphia program and find locations for their many works across the city. See It: 512 S. Broad Street

Portland, Maine

You were expecting us to talk about Oregon’s art scene, right? Surprise! Portland, Maine is exceeding all major #muralgoals via the artwork of the Portland Mural Initiative . Their aim is to “bring contemporary art into the public spaces of Portland” and “facilitate a dialogue between the artists and the communities in which the murals are located through public meals and artists talks.” Visit the Portland Mural Initiative website to learn how to get involved, including donation opportunities. (Plus, peek at their latest and greatest works.)

San Francisco, Calif.

After you’ve visited the painted ladies on Steiner Street, make your way to Clarion Alley. Located in the Mission District, between 17th and 18th and Mission and Valencia Streets, you’ll find the home of San Francisco’s 25-year program: Clarion Alley Mural Project . Covered by fresh paint and ideas, the alley runs one block at 560 feet long. CAMP says it has “used public art as a force for those who are marginalized and a place where culture and dignity speak louder than the rules of private property or a lifestyle that puts profit before compassion, respect and social justice.”

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Street Art Trail

Get out and explore the street art of #WhereIowaStarted.

Street Art of Dubuque

Over 50 murals have popped up around Dubuque since 2016 thanks to the work of the volunteer run, non-profit organization, Voices Productions. Today, murals are part of the fabric of Dubuque and its buildings are adorned with murals by world-renowned artists.

Take a walk through the vibrant landscape of Iowa’s oldest community and explore these works of art. Check in to each mural, or break them apart into one of eight challenges to work towards your goal of visiting them all. For each challenge completed, you will receive a collectible vinyl sticker (approximately 2” in size.) Check in to every location and you will receive a 20 oz. Aluminum Water Bottle with twist cap and carabiner, as well as your sticker for each of the 8 challenges.

Challenges include: Historic Main Street Challenge, Historic Downtown Challenge, Central Avenue Challenge, Off The Beaten Path Challenge, Face Off Challenge, Inspiring Influences Challenge, Floral or Flowing Challenge, and Taking Shape Challenge

​You can also find the printed version of the Street Art Trail at the Travel Dubuque Welcome Center. Don't forget to still sign up for the mobile exclusive trail and check-in at murals to unlock prizes. 

Project made possible by funding from City of Dubuque, and Dubuque Racing Association, with partnership from Travel Dubuque and Voices Productions.

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This city has more than 4,000 murals—and counting

Here's how Philadelphia, ‘The City of Murals,’ enlists its artists to support conservation and community.

A towering forest of sycamores and sassafras recently sprouted on a concrete stretch of Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia . Then came monarch butterflies, a bluebird, and an enormous bee. This garden grew, within the span of a week, on a 40-foot-long wall of a recently derelict quarry turned environmental center.

Like nearly all of the other 4,000 of Mural Arts Philadelphia ’s murals created over the past 35 years, this exuberant display of the natural world—unveiled on Earth Day 2022—is a collaboration between a community and an artist looking to help tell its story.

With this new mural, supported by National Geographic, artist Eurhi Jones turned a wall of the Overbrook Environmental Education Center (OEEC) into an urban escape—at least for the imagination. The mural is intended to bring attention to the fact that Philadelphia’s long past as an industrial giant makes for a complicated present for its inhabitants—human, flora, and fauna.

“We are an old city. As an old city, we are a decaying city. We’re protecting the people and environment that come into contact with old infrastructure,” says Jerome Shabazz, OEEC founder and executive director. The mural aims to energize a conversation about ecology within urban spaces. On the 6100 block of Lancaster Avenue, the conversation takes place in a neighborhood of commercial and industrial buildings with a smattering of mostly lower-income residents. They’ve been left to deal with the contamination and waste that industry can produce without any of the agency to do anything about it.

“This is a community that never gets asked anything,” says Shabazz. “All types of people, young and old, different races, are responding to the beauty and the color and the fact that people took the time and the energy to invest in them.”

“Murals are such a collaborative effort,” says Jones, the wall’s creative force. It takes a village to paint a mural, leaving lasting effects on local volunteers who help out. “I have had people say 20 years later, ‘I painted that leaf or that bear.’ It’s a positive force for good and beauty and collective action that doesn’t get to happen in people’s lives every day.”

But one doesn’t have to make the art to feel its effects. “Environmental justice can be a bummer conversation—it can be hard to even let yourself think about it sometimes. My dream is that this mural can help people connect to a subject that is hard to go into but necessary for survival,” says Jones. She hopes the mural’s sunny depiction will help people picture what could be so they can help make it happen. “Without imagination you can’t get to a better future. You have to imagine it first to know what you are going toward,” she adds.

A tree blooms in Philadelphia

In the coronavirus era, such odes to nature can be even more impactful, according to Jane Golden, who founded and directs Mural Arts Philadelphia. “After being inside and feeling this great deprivation, there is this longing for the great outdoors that is more pronounced right now,” she says. “There is an appreciation for localism. These are the birds and trees of Philadelphia. How do we look at things around us—not only see but appreciate what is in our environment? There’s attention to the assets we probably didn’t value before.”

( Here are seven cities around the world to see powerful street art .)

Golden underscores that city murals are equal parts catharsis and community. “The world is traumatized and much more fragile after COVID. Art is one way that we heal. For people around the mural, there is something uplifting, challenging,” says Golden. “People are longing for connection. Public art can do that. Because of COVID we are so disconnected from each other. Murals underscore a common humanity.”

To be clear, Philly’s love affair with murals has been long-term. On an anti-graffiti assignment for the city in the 1980s, Golden started drafting the graffiti artists themselves to channel their creative energy into making something that could speak to the masses, rather than anger local business owners and deface public spaces.

Over the intervening years, murals became intrinsic to the town, part of its muscle and bone. Cut to today, and a waiting list of hundreds of communities requesting public art for their neighborhood walls. “We have more people asking for work than ever, from representation to political issues. More desire for beauty,” says Golden.

Why murals matter

“This art form—from cave paintings to the Mexican muralists to the [frescos of the] Renaissance —has always been about the desire to make a mark,” says Golden. “It’s also a barometer of the times. Our ability to tell stories, to represent, to grapple with the issues of our time.”

( These frescoes shattered conventions in the Italian art world .)

To turn any corner in Philly is to catch sight of a mural. It’s a population of giants, literal and figurative. Dr. J, Aretha and Sinatra, Larry from the Three Stooges, Questlove, Fabian, and Frankie Avalon have all become part of the communities they inhabit. As do the less famous but equally colossal faces, like 19-year-old Najee Spencer-Young, brought to six-story, 2,400-square-foot life on a Center City wall by Amy Sherald (portraitist to Michelle Obama) to share her story of overcoming esteem issues and blossoming as a young woman of color.

Other Philly murals are love letters to the city writ large—an ode to the four seasons, perhaps, or an abstract explosion of color simply for beauty’s sake.

Very often, though, murals act as outsize hieroglyphics spelling out what concerns a community or what they want or need. Some are conversations on tough topics including racial justice, immigration, gun control, and fear of gentrification.

It’s difficult to ignore questions asked several stories high, day in and day out. “Murals are the autobiography of the city of Philadelphia. No matter where you go there are projects that talk about the people who live there, our heroes, the issues that confront us,” says Golden. “Cumulatively murals tell the story of Philadelphia. People feel that this work is theirs.”

( From rhinestone cottages to rusty spaceships, folk art shines in Wisconsin .)

For visitors, seeing Philly’s murals is like peeking into a treasured journal, providing access to the cherished, challenging, sometimes difficult, often funny and touching, and ultimately always honest inner thoughts of a city, as often provocative as they are riotously joyous. Philadelphia is a city that’s not primping for its closeup, or filtering out any of the lumpy bits, because it’s too busy just living.

( Wallabies. Cowboys. Street artists land in Australia’s Outback .)

The result is a city full of color and vibrancy, history and immediacy, a city with something personal to say and the sense of self to lay it out plainly.

“I wanted to contribute to places I felt I was a part of,” says muralist David Guinn about why he has set his hand dozens of times to creating murals for his home city. But he is also quick to point out that Philadelphia isn’t a city out to impress anyone by shying away from the tough stuff. “I wouldn’t call it charming,” Guinn told us in 2020 . “It’s just trying to be itself.”

“The through line is that people know authentic spirit. The heart is in it,” says Guinn. Rather fitting of the City of Love to lead with its heart.

Related Topics

• VISUAL ARTS
• ART HISTORY
• ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION
• CULTURAL TOURISM

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