The city of Eugene has installed more than 40 murals by various artists as of 2022. Many of the murals focus on giving visibility to cultural heritages and bringing vitality to Eugene during the pandemic.
The Eugene Cultural Services Division, which runs the city of Eugene’s arts and cultural programs, had to cancel many community events and gatherings when the pandemic began, Eugene public art manager Kate Ali said.
“Public art became the most effective way to bring that spark of vibrancy to Eugene that only the arts can bring, while still providing opportunities for our arts economy,” Ali said. “Since then, we’ve engaged our streets with murals, temporary art installations, percent for art projects and also worked with our Downtown building owners to create exhibition opportunities for local artists in our Windowfront Exhibitions.”
The city has three programs that have created murals: Community Murals, the Urban Canvas Program and the 20×21 Mural Project.
Community Murals is a city initiative that invites community members and commissioned artists to envision and express the history of the local region, community values and what they would like the future to look like, according to the city’s website.
The most recent community mural is “We Rise,” painted by artist Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith and located on Mary Spilde Center in Downtown Eugene. The 12-by-16-foot mural comes from a partnership between the city of Eugene Cultural Services, Lane Community College and We Rise — a downtown artist selection committee of Black and African youth.
In 2020, We Rise wanted to create a mural to respond to the current social justice movement and inspire beauty, hope, change, unity and integrity, the city of Eugene wrote in a statement. The city installed the “We Rise” mural on Jan. 12.
Ali said the city’s public art program is working to honor and bring visibility to cultural heritage through representation, resources, access and opportunities.
“The truth is, we have a lot of work to do to create a sense of safety and welcome for our underrepresented communities in Eugene, and our murals are a small part of that effort,” Ali said. “The murals become an opportunity to provide new perspectives and lenses of experiences for our community to reflect on.”
Other community murals include “Fibers of History,” which draws connections between the indigenous people of the Willamette Valley and the indigenous people of Latin America, and “Loud, Proud and Passionate,” which depicts women leaders with disabilities, according to the city’s website.
The city of Eugene began the 20×21 project in 2016 with a goal to create 20 or more outdoor murals in Eugene before the 2022 IAAF World Championships. By August of 2019, artists completed 22 murals for the project.
Ali said this project will inspire future public art initiatives for years to come.
“This program has created a community legacy and increased the appetite and excitement for murals in Eugene,” Ali said. “It has opened up opportunities for our world-class local muralists while inviting talented international artists to come visit and engage our city.”
Eugene’s Urban Canvas Program provides opportunities for local artists to create murals with local businesses. In 2022, the program has mostly focused on window displays that will be up until spring.
The city has created window exhibitions since 2020, which seek to provide opportunities for artists to present their work and address the vacancy in storefronts downtown, the downtown public art program assistant, Chanin Santiago, said.
“The program supports local artists and arts organizations in presenting engaging, dynamic works that activate empty storefronts, cultivate our arts ecology, highlight downtown businesses and provide engagement for our community,” Santiago said.
Janene Block, an illustrator and painter who studied fine arts at the University of Oregon, displayed her “Spring Fling” windowfront exhibition until Nov. 21, 2021.
“My intention for ‘Spring Fling’ was to inspire an excitement for life and new beginnings and was meant to be a continued theme from the Winter Wonderland windowfront exhibition,” Block said. “I used natural elements with pops of color to bring joy to our community during the difficult times we have been living in.”
“Winter Illuminations,” Eugene’s current windowfront exhibition, will last until Feb. 20.
