Murals of Chapel Hill

The list of what makes Chapel Hill special is long, and mixed in with all the stores, offices and restaurants that typically draw people downtown is a more subtle attraction that can make a walk through Chapel Hill feel like a stroll through an art museum.

Chapel Hill and Carrboro are home to more than a dozen murals that brighten the town and honor and celebrate the community.

Johnny Andrews with University Communications recently explored these one-of-a-kind artworks around town.

Find the full story at unc.edu and a selection of murals and their stories below.

The Greetings From Chapel Hill by Scott Nurkin

Visible from a Rosemary Street parking lot near the North Columbia Street intersection, the mural is a replica of a 1947 postcard by German illustrator Curt Teich. After contacting his estate, Nurkin was given permission to paint the mural with a Chapel Hill theme. Nurkin, a Carolina alumnus, says that the idea behind the mural was to provide a photo spot for Chapel Hill visitors.

Jigsaw Puzzle by Michael Brown

The Jigsaw Puzzle mural was designed by Carolina alumnus Brown using four giant puzzle pieces made out of cardboard that could interlock with each other on all sides. The sky of the mural was painted in Carolina Blue on one side of the wall, with the darker blue colors of Duke University painted on the other wall, although the colors have faded over the years.

When Brown and his team of artist interns reached a certain height on both sides of the wall, they left it unfinished like a typical jigsaw puzzle. After they stopped in the alleyway by Varsity Theatre, Brown told his team to take the cardboard puzzle pieces and go all over Chapel Hill and Carrboro to ask business owners if they could paint one puzzle piece on their building to play into the idea that the puzzle in the alleyway is only halfway finished, with the other pieces scattered all over the area. The interns never told Brown where they ended up painting the other pieces, and every now and then, he spots a different puzzle piece.

African American Trailblazers by Kiara Sanders

Painted on the side of the building at 111 South Merritt Mill Road in Chapel Hill, this mural highlights 12 residents who were instrumental in improving the Chapel Hill and Carrboro communities.The Town of Chapel Hill and alumnae members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority had been discussing a new public art piece that would honor local, unsung civic leaders in the African American community, and after submitting a proposal, Sanders was chosen as the artist for the project.

Sanders said that when a person with ties to the community is passing by the mural, she wants them to have a feeling of home and pride. For visitors, she hopes the mural will spur the viewer to look up the names listed on the mural to discover more about the people who helped pave the way for others in the Chapel Hill and Carrboro communities and who should never be forgotten.