I love art! I am so intrigued by public art in public places. We are all used to art galleries, exhibits, and showings but to pass by everyday in your car or walk by on your daily stroll is really cool. Not graffiti, but real art. I am not from RVA, but I have lived here long enough to really appreciate all of Richmond City’s character.

Richmond City is now considered an art district because all of its street art. We now have murals all over thanks to the Richmond Mural Project.

The Richmond Mural Project is a yearly event with the goal of creating over 100 murals by world renown talent in the first 5 years. This was started in 2012. In this year is when I began trying to map each down. The recurrence and solidification of the project throughout this time has been intended to establish Richmond as a landmark destination for internationally recognized murals in hopes that it will create exposure for the city, establishing it as a premier art destination. By concentrating a large number of murals throughout the city the project will increase tourism and bring the much needed “Feet on the Street” which will help local business thrive.

My goal since this started has been to track down all of the murals in the city and capture my own picture of them with myself or children inserted. This is history in the making and what I consider fun. I have called this “Mural Mapping.” I have even captured murals that arent apart of this project.

There are now 70 Murals and counting all over Richmond ! In 2012, 19 murals were created. In 2013, 16 were created. In 2014, 18 were created. In 2015, 17 were created. Now for 2016, the muralist line up has been established and they already started on July 11th. Yesterday, July 22nd the murals conclude. Out of 70 murals and counting, I have been up close and personal with the 26 you can see below. I have a lot more mural mapping to go. While reading RVA Magazine (Spring 2016, NO.24), I saw an advertisement for RVA Mural Tours provided by bioRide transportation. If your visiting or reside in RVA that would be something great to sign up for. I may go that route to finish mapping down the murals or I may just bike it out!

I have titled this post, Mural Mapping 1 because there will be a part 2 coming after I map the rest! Meanwhile, take a look below of the 26 awesome murals around RVA that I have come face to face with.

 

Below are other street art and murals around the Richmond City. These are by artist outside of the Richmond Mural Project.