West Virginia Mural Project Unveiled

The West Side Ripple Mural Project, featuring eight murals by local artists, was unveiled on Thursday evening. The murals showcase themes of nature and community. About 30 people attended the event, which was hosted by the West Virginia Creative Network (WVCN), the West Virginia State University (WVSU) Extension Service, and Echo-Lit. The murals are the first round of artwork that will be combined into a public art piece on a fence surrounding a lot next to Echo-Lit, located at 427 Washington St. W. The lot will be transformed into the West Side ArtsPark, a community event space. The completed murals will line the front of the fence, and future murals will line the inside. The Ripple program, a collaboration between WVCN and WVSU Extension Service, is designed to create a shared vision of collaboration for developing public art and supporting local artists. The muralists often worked side-by-side in the studio space in the upper level of Echo-Lit, becoming friends in the process. Five of the eight murals feature birds, inspiring the inside joke, "Put a bird on it".