Marshalltown Murals

The Marshalltown Mural Program provides an avenue for our community to make Marshalltown THE place to live, work, learn and play, as well as an opportunity to enhance quality of life and support economic development. The mural program creates an opportunity for an increased focus on quality of life, community pride, beautification and creative placemaking.

If you are interested in a mural on your wall or have a great idea, contact us and learn more!

CURRENT PROJECTS / CALLS TO ARTISTS

Tremont Building - Due 6/20/21

Artwork design for a public mural to be created on an exterior wall in Downtown Marshalltown, Iowa. The mural will be on two sides of the building – the main wall will be south facing, adjacent to a redeveloped public parking lot and the mural will wrap around into an alleyway. This parking lot is the main/center parking lot in our downtown and the alleyway is the primary pedestrian alleyway connecting residents and visitors to our Main Street.

FULL RFP DOCUMENT

DEADLINE: Sunday, June 20th, 2021 at 5:00pm to Amber Danielson at director@artsandculturealliance.org

MURAL OBJECTIVES

This mural will be an energetic and inspirational back drop for a new gathering space in our downtown.
This mural will create a must-see destination in Marshalltown.
This mural will provide an opportunity for our community to experience ‘art for art sake’.

TIMELINE

Deadline for proposals: Sunday, June 20th, 2021 at 5:00pm to director@artsandculturealliance.org
June: RFP review, initial interviews (if needed) with artist finalists
Late June/ Early July: Final artist and design selected and meet with mural selection committee to go over sketch, information from the client, timeline and budget.
August: weather dependent mural completed.

TO APPLY

Email a .PDF to director@artsandculturealliance.org including the following information:
- Your name, phone number, email, and 2 references with contact info
- A page including artwork photographs and descriptions of your past work, including any mural or large-scale work if applicable.
- A completed sketch/draft for the suggested mural design
- A brief bio about you as an artist and your process.

Animal Rescue League of Marshalltown
Selected artist being announced soon!

Location: This mural will be located in an internal space where visitors are invited to interact with adoptable pets. Also note, this wall is used for taking pictures of adoptable dogs to share with potential adopters.

Objective: This mural should be vibrant and represent the outdoors.

McGregors Furniture & Mattress
Selected artist being announced soon!

This mural will be on the walkway path leading to the main entrance of McGregors Furniture & Mattress in downtown Marshalltown.

Objective: McGregors experienced extensive damaged as a result of the 2018 Marshalltown tornado and just recently moved back into their newly renovated building. This mural should integrate both McGregors’ and Downtown Marshalltown’s history, while celebrating and paying tribute to the revitalization and beauty of Downtown Marshalltown.

PAST PROJECTS

LA SALUD IN DOWNTOWN MARSHALLTOWN - November 2020

Des Moines Artist, Jenna Brownlee, is known for her beautiful floral work as an Iowa Muralist. With a mission to make people happy through art, her work is often inspired by collages of organic shapes found in nature with themes of bright colors, flowers and typography that encourage others to stop and smell the roses. Jenna’s interactive Marshalltown mural design incorporates flowers, monarch butterflies and the word Soñar, which means to dream. The flowers chosen are native to Latin America and the butterflies signify the migration monarchs make from Canada to Mexico each Fall. The mural celebrates and symbolizes the migration and journey many Latinos make to America, specifically to our community.

The mural is located on the North wall of La Salud in the alleyway off of North 1st Street, in between West Main Street and West State Street. Read More about the project on our Blog!

This Project was Funded by:

MARSHALLTOWN SCHOOLS SIDEWALK SAFETY MURALS

In an effort to increase the safety for students in Marshalltown, we partnered with the City of Marshalltown and the Marshalltown Community School District to create vibrant sidewalk murals at each of the schools in Marshalltown. In May of 2019, our community tragically lost an 8-year-old, Christian Maxon, after being struck by a car while crossing the street after school. We believe the arts provide hope, healing and are a creative way to address and solve community challenges. It is our priority to honor and pay tribute to Christian and his family by increasing safety, awareness, education, beautification and engagement in the arts through this project. Murals were installed at three of the 11 schools this Fall - Franklin, Rogers and Woodbury elementary schools. The remaining MCSD schools, as well as St. Francis Catholic School and Marshalltown Christian School, will be completed in 2021.
Read more about the project on our blog!

The paint for this project is donated by Diamond Vogel Paint-Marshalltown.

To make a tax-deductible donation towards the Sidewalk Safety Mural Project:
Please make checks out to Arts & Culture Alliance – send to PO BOX 386, Marshalltown, IA, 50158

Online Donations Accepted by clicking the DONATE button
*be sure to designate the sidewalk mural project

ROTATING GRAFFITI WALL IN DOWNTOWN MARSHALLTOWN

As a symbol of hope, unity and strength during this difficult time, the Arts & Culture Alliance partnered with Great Western Bank and Tama artist, Dye Davenport, to create a Marshalltown Strong graffiti piece in Downtown Marshalltown. During the tough times we are experiencing, we believe the arts provide hope, unity and strength to our community, and what better symbol than on a wall exposed as a result of the damage from the tornado. *The wall is located on East State Street, on the corner of North 1st Ave (the back of Great Western Bank's drive through window).