As we continue our focus on Arts and Culture, enjoy this week’s blog by Angel Gray with the Tourism Bureau. She shares how murals make communities beautiful:
Imagine being a tourist in an unfamiliar place, walking through a downtown, turning a corner and unexpectedly being greeted by a towering piece of art. Visitors are drawn to communities that embrace the arts. Wayne County has done just that with more than 100 murals throughout Wayne County.
Murals make communities beautiful! They add color and fun photo opportunities, but also create vibrant neighborhoods and districts that tourists want to visit. In addition, residents are proud to call these places home, and business owners want to invest in them. Murals help breathe life into otherwise blank canvases.
Our Story
Many of Wayne County’s murals tell our story. They express the culture of a community and help play a role in preserving Wayne County’s history for generations to come. One of the more recent mural installations in Cambridge City highlights the tremendous influence of the Overbeck Sisters to Wayne County, as well as the transformational impact the Overbeck sisters had on the International Arts & Crafts movement while living in Cambridge City.
Stories such as these are depicted in many of the murals scattered throughout Wayne County. The colors and fun scenes that adorn our buildings are more than just paint. They are an invaluable educational opportunity and a time capsule so to speak.
Recently, eleven new murals were added through the Wayne County Mural Program, a project funded by the Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program (HELP), the Wayne County Foundation and the Wayne County Convention and Tourism Bureau, Inc. The Western Wayne News just published an article about these murals. We invite you to take a tour of Wayne County and visit each one. You won’t be disappointed.
As a local resident, I’ve enjoyed my commute to work each morning a little more over the last few months. As I’ve driven to work, I’ve had the opportunity to witness murals come to life before my eyes.
Each morning, a little bit more color had been added, a new image sketched out, and I found myself taking new routes, in neighborhoods that I wouldn’t typically drive through on my way to work. I often slowed down or stopped, just to catch a glimpse of the latest progress.
More than Art
My experience of taking new routes only reiterates the impact that murals can have in attracting outside visitation to these neighborhoods, thus attracting potential new customers to business districts and increasing the economic impact in our County.
We know murals are more than just a piece of art. Through continued investments in our cultural art, Wayne County will continue to attract and retain young professionals, families and retirees. We encourage both visitors and residents alike to slow down and appreciate your surroundings, taking in the beauty and stories that adorn Wayne County.
