The Massanutten Regional Library is pleased to announce that they are seeking to award an artist $1,000 and the opportunity to design a large mural on the Bruce Street wall of Central Library, located at 174 S. Main St. in Harrisonburg. Applications remain open until January 5 with the winning artist being notified January 31 and announced publicly at the Big Read Kickoff event held February 28 on the third floor of the Explore More Discovery Museum. The final mural will be unveiled at MRL’s 2025 Rocktown Author Festival on April 12.
Artists are free to present their design, which should demonstrate the theme of MRL’s vision: to be the welcoming heart of our community where all come to learn, discover, create, and connect. We intend for the painted mural to be permanent and provide a welcoming visual signal to our community for years to come.
“One of the things that I love most about Harrisonburg is its love of public art,” MRL Director Zach Elder said. “Everyone at MRL is so pleased that we can add a mural to the community that will both reflect who we are and demonstrate our welcoming, inclusive spirit.”
This project’s creative goals are a) contribute an aesthetically pleasing artwork on a large empty brick canvas; b) demonstrate visually the mission, vision, and values of the Massanutten Regional Library and that library services are available to everyone, reflective of the inclusiveness of our Harrisonburg-Rockingham County community; and c) provide a closing artistic activity to our 2025 Big Read programming, celebrating Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing. The goals of the NEA Big Read initiative are to inspire meaningful conversations, celebrate local creativity, elevate a wide variety of voices and perspectives, and build stronger connections in each community.
We hope that seeing this public mural will encourage more of our community to take advantage of the benefits and services of the library, while also communicating the welcoming nature of our Friendly City. The proposed timeframe for construction is February 14 through April 12, weather permitting.
Being in a prominent location in downtown Harrisonburg, this project will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people per year. We expect this mural to have a sizable positive impact on the arts scene in the Harrisonburg-Rockingham community. While we will provide leeway to the winning artist in regards to size, we expect a minimum of a 20’ x 20’ mural.
The winning mural design will come from a juried competition judged by a small team under the following criteria: artistic merit, fit with the creative goals, and demonstrated experience. Submitting artists are asked to propose a budget of $10,000 or less for the project. Artists are asked to submit their proposal, previous samples, and information via the application found on our website: https://mrlib.org/mural.html.
The 2025 Big Read celebration, programming, and mural competition are made possible, in part, through a grant from Arts Council of the Valley, a grant from National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Massanutten Regional Library, and other sponsors.
