Click here to see Topeka Mural art!

Murals in public spaces are exciting. Not only do they add new life to old buildings, they often tell stories about important events, historical figures and offer visitors a peek into the culture of the place they're visiting. Mural art seems to inherently capture the values and visions of a community.

Topeka now has three major murals (two are complete and one is underway). One honors Aaron Douglas, Topeka native and Harlem Renaissance artist. Another exists to draw attention to restoring Topeka's Constitution Hall, our town's oldest building and site for the first convention of Free-Staters in 1855. The third tells the history of Chesney Park, a neighborhood undergoing improvement through weeding out blighted buildings and overgrown lots and seeding it with new opportunity for everyone living in the area.

Probably the most touching element to these murals is how they've brought our community together physically (each was painted by multiple community members) and philosophically (if we're going to grow together let's identify what's important to us and put it up for everyone to see). Our murals remind us of something we experienced together (either in the past or as a group of painters) and give us a guidepost for what we're working toward.

The Great Topeka Wall Mural is looking for volunteers to help paint—click here for information.

Suggested viewing ...

(this is just a start ... searching mural art in the TSCPL catalog yeilds 54 titles!):

• Sunflower Journeys: Muralists Produced by KTWU, this 2003 episode features the Kansas Murals Project and an interview with David Lowenstein, artist and creator of The Great Topeka Wall Mural. Click picture below to go to the Library catalog and reserve the DVD or VHS:

... and reading from the Library's collection:

• Murals: Walls That Sing 
• Art for the People 
• Graffiti Women: Street Art from Five Continents 
• The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages 
• Roy Lichtenstein: Times Square Mural 
• Diego Rivera: The Detroit Industry Murals 
• The Ajanta Caves: Artistic wonder of ancient Buddhist India 
• Rethinking Regionalism: John Steuart Curry and the Kansas Mural Controversy