{"id":59527,"date":"2025-11-11T15:38:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T20:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/?p=59527"},"modified":"2025-11-20T11:42:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:42:35","slug":"how-can-murals-be-catalysts-for-climate-and-community-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/2025\/11\/11\/how-can-murals-be-catalysts-for-climate-and-community-action\/","title":{"rendered":"How can murals be catalysts for climate and community action?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Authors in This Roundtable<\/h3>\n
Kwadwo Adae, New Haven<\/a> The public realizes the lasting beautification effects of public art are highly desirable on both a personal and community-wide scale.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Michael DeAngelo, New Haven<\/a> If we prioritize excellence in the physical world over the digital experience in public art, we may inspire those to do the same in their own life.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Ian French, New Haven<\/a> While science tells us why action is needed, murals show us what we\u2019re fighting for and who we\u2019re fighting with.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Jane Golden, Philadelphia<\/a> For over four decades, Mural Arts has been at the forefront of creating murals that not only beautify neighborhoods but also generate memorable, cohesive, and sometimes even magical experiences.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Mike Houck, Portland<\/a> What had begun as a beautification project had become an artful tool that piqued enough interest to attract more resources to restore and manage the city\u2019s first official urban wildlife refuge.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Richard Johnson, Springfield<\/a> In every brushstroke lies an invitation to remember our interconnectedness both to the planet and to one another.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Lisa Lee, Wood-Ridge<\/a> When possible, we should use art to encourage people to consider our planet and live in a way that reduces global climate change.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Annie Lin, New Haven<\/a> Creating a mural is a powerful, hyperlocal first step toward modeling collective change in your environment.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Kilia Llano, New York City<\/a> Murals have the power to create moments of pause and reflection in the middle of a busy street or a forgotten wall.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Colleen Murphy-Dunning, New Haven<\/a> While science tells us why action is needed, murals show us what we\u2019re fighting for and who we\u2019re fighting with.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Shayna Rose, Baltimore<\/a> Every time one of these placemaking projects is installed, I imagine that it inspires several new people to dream up alternative visions for their own streets.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Tara von Schmidt, New Haven<\/a> When that is linked to actual action, then one day a mural reaches beyond art on a wall and becomes part of a living thing.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Erika Svendsen, New York City<\/a> The paint matters\u2014cool pigments reflecting heat, natural minerals connecting us to earth, coatings scrubbing pollution from the air.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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David Maddox<\/div>\n
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about the writer
\n David Maddox<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n

David loves urban spaces and nature. He loves creativity and collaboration. He loves theatre and music. In his life and work he has practiced in all of these as, in various moments, a scientist, a climate change researcher, a land steward, an ecological practitioner, composer, a playwright, a musician, an actor, and a theatre director. David's dad told him once that he needed a back up plan, something to \"fall back on\". So he bought a tuba.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

Introduction<\/h3>\n

Murals are everywhere now\u2014on schoolyards and salt boxes, buses and armories, waterfronts and wildlife refuges. They are declarations made in public, at the scale of daily life. And increasingly, they\u2019re asked to do more than beautify: to cool streets, catalyze coalitions, shift behaviors, and tell a truer story about who \u201cwe\u201d are and what futures we\u2019re willing to work for. This roundtable brings together artists, planners, scientists, and civic leaders living inside that question: how can murals be catalysts for climate and community action?<\/p>\n

A first theme is the power\u2014and responsibility\u2014of beauty. Kwadwo Adae argues that craft matters: skillful work earns public trust and ignites what he calls a \u201cContagious Encore Effect,\u201d where one mural begets another and, ideally, trees and other green infrastructure follow. Jane Golden shows how Philadelphia\u2019s practice has evolved from one-off neighborhood works to system-level interventions that literally move people toward greener choices. Here, beauty isn\u2019t a frill; it\u2019s an instrument that invites attention, curiosity, and pride\u2014the preconditions for collective action.<\/p>\n

Second, murals as connective tissue. Mark Johnson and Kilia Llano describe murals as living social instruments rather than static images\u2014civic rituals that transform spectators into co-authors. Annie Lin calls mural-making an \u201cOG icebreaker\u201d that convenes officials, residents, businesses, and youth\u2014rooms where climate science alone rarely gets a hearing. In New Haven, that energy has coalesced into \u201ccool murals\u201d blending climate data, reflective paints, and community storytelling\u2014art that doesn\u2019t just symbolize resilience but practices it.<\/p>\n

Third, the medium is not neutral. Erika Svendsen foregrounds material choices: cool pigments that reflect heat, mineral binders that root us in earth, coatings that scrub pollution. If the message is in the medium, then the wall can become micro-infrastructure for adaptation. This raises practical questions that recur across essays: How do we specify materials for environmental benefit and durability? Who maintains them over time? How do we measure impact rigorously yet legibly?<\/p>\n

Fourth, limits and unintended consequences. Lisa Lee and Tara von Schmidt insist that murals are not policy, nor are they filtration systems, safer streets, or affordable housing. Without links to tangible next steps\u2014volunteering, advocacy, design changes, budget shifts\u2014murals risk becoming decorative conscience. Tara urges vigilance when projects stand in for, rather than support, real change, especially where community voice is light and institutional branding heavy. Lisa\u2019s intersection murals\u2014useful for visibility and safety but subject to fading and regulations\u2014remind us that design lives inside governance.<\/p>\n

Fifth, place specificity. Mike Houck\u2019s Portland story shows how a single heron could pull people\u2019s gaze to a neglected wetland and mobilize policy attention toward an urban refuge. Shayna Rose\u2019s Baltimore salt boxes flip humble winter infrastructure into a citywide canvas, seeding a different imagination for streets. In New Haven, Thermal Reflections and Take the Risk to Cool Down anchor conversations about heat, history, and apprenticeship. These are not generic backdrops; they are ecologies of memory, power, and possibility. A catalytic mural reads the room\u2014and the watershed.<\/p>\n

Finally, authorship and trust. Michael DeAngelo urges prioritizing excellence in the physical world of public art amid a rush toward disembodied, machine-generated imagery. His point isn\u2019t tool panic; it\u2019s about accountability and craft. If murals are to help us reattach to place, they must be anchored in human skill and lived experience.<\/p>\n

From these threads arise the open questions we hope readers will carry forward:<\/p>\n