City As Canvas

The City as Canvas initiative is the first community based city-wide public art mural program of its kind within the City of Syracuse.   This initiative is driven by the community throughout the entire process; from submitting ideas for mural locations within each neighborhood, to voting on the locations, to determining the final civic pride themed design submitted by local artists through a ranked-choice ballot process. 

Over the summer of 2022, the Westside, Downtown and Eastwood TNT sectors selected their local artists and now have murals within their neighborhoods! In the summer of 2023, the Eastside, Southside and Northside sectors selected their local artist’s mural designs and now have murals in their neighborhoods! In spring of 2024, the Valley and Lakefront sectors will be issuing a call for art, so stay tuned!

Funding for this program is made possible by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding from the City of Syracuse. Due to the nature of the funding source, this program is specifically designed to provide economic relief to local artists, living or operating a creative space within the City of Syracuse, who were economically impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.