Tacoma Murals Project Overview
The Tacoma Murals Project joins artists and communities through the collaborative process of mural-making to create powerful artworks that can transform public spaces, neighborhood identities, and individual lives.
Talented adult artists work with communities to design and implement high quality temporary outdoor painted murals that reflect the stories and content researched from the community. The murals are intended to enhance neighborhood and community identity, turn ordinary spaces into community landmarks, and promote community dialogue, all while fighting blight and vandalism.
The community groups are provided with funding to complete a mural, an artist/artist team to implement ideas, technical assistance, and general promotion of the project. In return, the selected community groups assist the artist/artist team through community coordination,
input of stories and content, preparation of the wall, and maintenance of the mural after its completion.
Applications
This program is currently on hiatus. We are not accepting applications from community groups or mural artists at this time.
Completed Murals & Traffic Box Wraps
Thirty-five murals were completed between 2010 and fall 2017. In addition, artwork by 21 artists adorns traffic signal boxes throughout Tacoma. Visit the
Completed Murals page for photos and more information about these projects.
Mural TourTake your own self-guided tour of the murals using the
public art tour map. When viewing the online map, select 'Mural' from the drop down menu under 'Category' to explore murals around Tacoma. The map includes all Tacoma Murals Project murals as well as many others.
Mural Artist Roster
Interested in hiring an artist to paint a mural for your own project? We maintain a publicly-accessible roster of mural artists who have painted murals for the City of Tacoma's Office of Arts & Cultural Vitality. Take a look at their past work samples and contact any of these artists directly if you are interested in working with them.
Our current roster includes: Curtis Ashby, Mindy Barker, Kate Cendejas Thun, Neeka Cook, Anthony Duenas, Jorge Garcia, Jeremy Gregory, Tiffanny Hammonds, Bob Henry, Christopher Paul Jordan, Maria Jost, Angela Larsen, David Long, Chelsea O'Sullivan, Matamatanonofo Porter, Saiyare Refaei, Chris Sharp, Mary Elizabeth Smith, Kenji Hamai Stoll, Diana Leigh Surma, and Janice Warren.
Traffic Box Wrap Project
The Traffic Box Wrap Project, an extension of the Tacoma Murals Project, was launched in 2015. The Traffic Box Wrap Project is designed to enhance the public realm by adding works of art by local artists to public infrastructure that is often targeted by vandalism. The wrapped boxes are intended to enhance neighborhood and community identity, turn ordinary spaces into community landmarks, and promote community dialogue.
Tacoma artists were selected through a competitive process to create artwork designs that were reproduced as vinyl wraps and applied to traffic signal boxes throughout the city.
Partners
Case Studies