Cities Get Creative

For these four Main Street communities, public art is a vehicle for revival.

July 29, 2025

Rachel Wallenstein,

1 Douglasville Victoria Cardler Kg25 5z2a2038

Passionate and Committed: Victoria Collier, Douglasville’s Main Street Coordinator. Photo credit: Kevin Garrett

Stroll through downtown Douglasville and you’ll come face-to-face with more than a dozen hand-painted fiberglass hearts. The eye-catching, unique sculptures are part of a larger movement in Georgia’s historic Main Street cities, where public art has become a powerful tool for downtown revival. For 45 years, the Georgia Main Street Program has helped communities use creative placemaking to fuel economic growth and civic pride.

“Public art plays a key role in Georgia’s Main Street’s revitalization strategy,” says Cherie Bennett, director for the Office of Downtown Development in the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. “It helps shape a downtown’s visual identity, making it more vibrant, welcoming, and reflective of local character. … It draws people in, encourages exploration and increases foot traffic, which supports small businesses. At the same time, it fosters civic pride and creates spaces where residents and visitors feel connected and represented. It’s a powerful way for communities to express who they are.”

Student Contribution: The mural containing the phrase Live Well. Play Well. Hartwell was created by a student group named Color the World Bright. Photo credit: Contributed

Georgia was one of the original pilot states in the Main Street Program, as part of the National Main Street Initiative launched by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Communities that stand out by emphasizing historic preservation and economic development are designated as Classic Main Street communities. Accredited by the state and the National Main Street Center, these communities are known for having a vibrant downtown. Georgia’s Exceptional Main Street communities (GEMS), represent some of the state’s most thriving downtown districts. These designated cities go even further in demonstrating a positive impact in their communities. They undergo monthly reporting and annual assessments to maintain their GEMS status, and the Office of Downtown Development provides them with one-on-one technical services and discounted training opportunities.

Through murals, sculptures and public installations, the four Main Street communities of Canton, Douglasville, Hartwell (one of the newest GEMS) and Suwanee exemplify how public art can be both a beautification and a strategic tool to revitalize historic districts and strengthen local economies. And while the style of art in each of the four cities varies, the art is guided by three main ideas: Placemaking and identity, economic vitality and community engagement, and inclusion.

Community Driven: Hart County’s Archway Professional Roseanna Cruz-Bibb and Jason Ford, Hartwelll County Economic and Community Development director. Photo credit: Amanda Greene

“Those ideas align with what we see in Main Street communities statewide,” says Bennett. “Public art is more than decoration. It tells stories, reflects local identity, and creates a sense of place for communities. … When thoughtfully implemented, public art can foster inclusion and community engagement, helping to connect people. It’s a versatile tool that bridges identity, economy and belonging.”

Art Brightens Downtowns

Downtown Hartwell is bursting with a new energy, thanks to a revival strategy replacing the city’s blank walls of buildings with bright, colorful murals. The initiative focused largely on murals created by students and graduates from the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art. These art projects have breathed new life into historic buildings, created welcoming public spaces and helped revitalize the downtown area. The students worked with the Archway Partnership program, a unit of the UGA Public Service and Outreach, in which faculty and students get directly involved in the process of solving challenges in communities across Georgia.

Student Contributions: University of Georgia students Alondra Arevalo (pictured), Katie Eidson and Rina Yoo helped create a mural on the side of Blush Hair Studio in downtown Hartwell. Photo credit: Contributed

“The arts are the base layer fabric in our community,” says Jason Ford, Hartwell’s Economic and Community Development director. “And through the Archway Partnership we’re able to create an environment for the arts to be successful, even through things like engineering, landscape architecture and strategic plans.”

The Archway Partnership is based in nine communities around the state, including Hart County. Roseanna Cruz-Bibb is Hart County’s Archway Professional, serving as the liaison between Hartwell’s needs and UGA’s available resources. She says that Hartwell decides what its priorities are and the things that it wants to work on. “It is entirely community driven,” she says.

Hartwell’s placemaking efforts have been so successful that it was recognized as Downtown of the Year for Georgia in 2023 and elevated to a GEMS city in late 2024. Ford says such accolades further raise Hartwell’s profile, attracting more visitors and investors.

Bringing Smiles: Douglasville Mayor Rochelle Robinson by the Love Where You Live heart. Photo credit: City of Douglasville

In Douglasville, two of the most creative initiatives are the Love Where You Live project, featuring a series of heart sculptures placed throughout the city, and the Arts on Fire project, which turns ordinary fire hydrants into colorful, vibrant works of art. The decorated hydrants include an ocean-themed one called Under the Sea and some animal-themed ones that resemble a pig, a ladybug and a peacock. Voted the community’s favorite is a hydrant that looks like a dalmatian sitting outside City Hall.

Douglasville Mayor Rochelle Robinson says the community feedback has been amazing. “The public enjoys seeing how the fire hydrants are painted. And I will say I love all the fire hydrants because our son is a firefighter,” she says.

Arts on Fire: Ordinary fire hydrants become works of art in Douglasville, where a hydrant transformed into a dalmation sits outside City Hall, and another illustrated with fish, called Under the Sea, sits at an intersection. Photo credit: Contributed

Victoria Collier, Douglasville’s Main Street Coordinator, served on the staff of the city’s Public Arts Commission, which was established in 2020. “The Commission is very passionate and committed to expanding the art in our downtown, as well as enhancing the existing art,” she says.

Interactive Exhibit: Kim Towne, Suwanee’s special projects manager, highlights pieces in the SculpTour program, including the Betelgeuse sculpture behind her, created by artist Phil Proctor. Photo credit: Eric Sun

The city’s public art installations, rotating murals and exhibits in public spaces purposefully reflect the community’s identity and celebrate local talent. Through these installations, Collier says Douglasville is establishing itself as a destination for visitors. “These placemaking initiatives in our downtown bring folks here,” she says.

Suwanee’s public art strategy has been carefully planned and cultivated over the past decade. In 2008, the City Council created a Public Arts Commission, appointing a seven-member board of residents and local business owners to create programs that bring public art into the community.

Seven years later, Suwanee facilitated the development of a public arts master plan, which includes a 10-year strategy aimed at strengthening the community’s identity and reflecting its unique character. Kim Towne, Suwanee’s special projects manager, says the city regularly receives requests from other cities for advice on how to replicate such a thorough plan. “The public art master plan really helped to guide our vision for public art,” she says. “We really want to be seen as an artistic city.” Suwanee is in the beginning stages of looking at the next iteration of its master plan.

Towne says the public art program has three overarching areas of focus. First, the art must reflect the city’s image, local history and culture. Second, the exhibits are interactive, with QR code audio tours or online voting campaigns where the public chooses a favorite piece of art. “Most of the art has a recording from the artists talking about their piece in their own words,” says Towne. Lastly, most of the art installations are purposefully temporary, to keep things fresh and exciting. The popular SculpTour program, now in its eighth installation, is a biennial rotation of sculptures placed throughout the downtown.

Sculptures are also part of the art scene in Canton, where the art tells a unique story about the community’s local heritage and cultural diversity. Murals in different neighborhoods act as cultural storytellers, preserving Canton’s history.

In 2020, Legs Through Time was completed in the Downtown Historic district. Also known as the Railroad Street mural, the huge piece, which spans a 540-foot-long wall, is an exclusive timeline of Canton told through depictions of people, animals and background scenes of different eras. It starts with black and white images of prehistoric times, including a saber-toothed tiger and people dressed in animal skins. The mural progresses through pre- and post-Civil war and shows images illustrating child labor, agriculture, war, desegregation and more. The illustrations in the 2020 section are set six feet apart, to illustrate social distancing.

“Public art is more than decoration. It tells stories, reflects local identity, and creates a sense of place for communities.” – Cherie Bennett, director, Office of Downtown Development in the Georgia Department of Community Affairs

The Boling Park Basketball Court mural and Canton Wildflower mural were both created in 2022. Former Canton City Councilmember Brooke Schmidt says around that same time, Canton created its Public Art Master Plan, “so that no matter who was in leadership positions, there would be a plan for the city to look back on and use moving forward.”

Art Underfoot: An aerial view of the Boling Park Basketball Court mural, that encompasses the entire court. Photo credit: Contributed

Canton has also integrated its murals into urban development, as with the brightly colored It’s a Vibe mural on the downtown parking deck. The mural features a young woman of color playing the guitar. “The parking deck mural is becoming an iconic part of Canton,” says Theater Events and Facilities Director Kristin Norton Green.

Boosting Local Economies

Art provides important economic benefits to all of these Main Street communities. Thanks to the Archway Partnership and UGA, the downtown revitalization of Hartwell has produced significant economic growth. The public art and streetscape improvements have made the downtown more appealing, leading to an increase in visitors. “I think the murals breathe life into the historic buildings,” says Hartwell’s Ford.

New businesses have also opened downtown. “Our downtown footprint has totally changed over the last seven years, from a lot of private investment with people buying historic buildings and revitalizing them,” says Ford, adding that “historic preservation is a very big deal for us.”

UGA’s Cruz-Bibb says the Archway Partnership provides Hartwell with necessary resources to build infrastructure for future sustainability, such as with downtown development and engineering plans. Atlanta’s Fox Theater, which supports theaters across the Southeast through a multiyear grant program, awarded The Hart County Community Theater a $500,000 grant. The money will be used to restore the century-old venue, building on a previous emergency grant of $23,000 awarded by the Fox in the 2022/2023 fiscal year. “Our students helped in creating a strategic plan for the theater,” says Cruz-Bibb. Another group of students is working on a capital campaign so the theater can continue raising funds toward the $500,000 grant.

Douglasville views art as a tool to not only beautify the community but also to attract tourism, support local businesses and create a dynamic downtown with engaging public spaces. “We are really dedicated to enhancing the community through art. We know art is an economic boon all over the country, and especially for the state of Georgia,” says Mayor Robinson.

In Suwanee, too, public art is a deliberate economic development tool. The city has an ordinance that encourages developers and private sector investors to donate 1% of a project’s budget to public art. But that isn’t the only way Suwanee is funding art projects. Assistant City Manager Denise Brinson says the city recently raised approximately $1.7 million in an Art for All capital campaign for the installation of public art at the new Town Center on Main and DeLay Nature Park “That’s another thing that came out of the master plan,” Brinson says.

Lively and Bright: Canton Mayor Bill Grant stands by the Sunnyside mural. Photo credit: Kevin Garrett

Canton uses murals to attract visitors to some of its previously overlooked public areas, turning them into economic assets and attracting folks to local businesses. Schmidt says one goal of her 2018 City Council platform was to bring public art to Canton. “I felt it was something budget friendly and easy to accomplish that makes a big difference for local economies,” she says.

For example, there’s the beautiful Sunnyside mural in the Hispanic business district, overlooking Harmon Park and strategically placed to increase visibility and foot traffic. The mural on a 600-foot-long by 12 ½-foot-high wall has pink azaleas surrounding the word Sunnyside. “I love how the Sunnyside mural speaks to that specific community and neighborhood,” says Schmidt. The mural was part of a total renovation of the park, which is in an area that’s home to a significant number of Hispanic residents and businesses.

While much of the public art in Canton can be found in its Historic Downtown, Mayor Bill Grant says that the master plan called for incorporating sculptures along walking trails, such as those along the Etowah River. “We’re about to embark upon commissioning some new sculpture to go along that trail, to just enhance the beauty along the river,” he says.

Jamie Foreman, a board member of Canton’s Cultural Arts Commission and owner of Menagerie on Main, an art gallery near the Historic Downtown, says the city has a special public art ordinance in its master plan so that 2% of every qualifying capital project will be dedicated towards public art in its downtown. She says the city has also received anonymous donations to support public art initiatives. “People are really seeing the benefits and willingly contributing to it – they want to be a part of this,” Foreman says.

Community Engagement

In Hartwell, public input is a central aspect of its public arts and development strategy. The city’s collaborative process allows residents to take pride in their community’s transformation. “People love the public art. I mean, they absolutely love it,” says Ford. Beyond that, there are regular planning and listening sessions to find out what people want to see downtown. The Maker’s Market is a great example, Ford says. “It’s become a very popular festival that happens [a few times] a year for local artists to showcase and sell their arts.”

Cruz-Bibb says the murals create welcoming public spaces in Hartwell’s previously little used streets and areas. “They put a mural on the side of the chamber of commerce on this lonely little street and it transformed into a vibrant outdoor meeting space and seating area,” she says.

In Douglasville, Mayor Robinson says people keep asking for more events, like for Black History Month, Kwanzaa and Cinco de Mayo. “As we put more events out, people get excited, which I think is an indicator that the public is responding very well,” she says. By far, the most popular event is the annual Taste of Douglasville, hosted by the city’s Cultural Arts Council, which showcases local area restaurants and businesses.

In 2022, Suwanee called on residents to donate old trophies that would be used to create a giant work of art called the Ultimate Participation Trophy. The city received thousands of trophies, and many school teams pose in front of the exhibit at the end of the season. “It was kind of making fun of ourselves,” says Brinson. The sculpture is now one of the area’s most popular engagement exhibits.

In Canton, murals highlight community connection. Foreman says the Sunnyside mural was deliberately placed following community input from the Hispanic community. “We wanted to create something for residents to feel represented. The Sunnyside mural helps create a sense of belonging,” she says. The Railroad Street timeline mural is another example, reflecting Canton’s community stories and history.

Place to Pose: A group poses on top of the It’s a Vibe mural in Canton. Photo credit: Contributed

Canton’s murals have become gathering spaces for community events, such as graduation photos and backdrops for Instagram posts and stories. Velinda Hardy, Canton’s downtown development manager, says seeing the trend of people taking photographs in front of murals shows the city has accomplished its goal. Families gather in front of the murals to celebrate and capture important events, such as a teenager’s milestone birthday. “We have done what we set out to do. We have given everyone a place to be, in a moment in time,” says Hardy.

Theater and facilities director Green says the murals help create a sense of place, such as with the bold and whimsical Wildflower mural, which is a huge attraction for visitors, and especially teens. “All of the teenagers want to be photographed there,” Green says.

Bennett echoes that sentiment, saying public art makes a place feel lively and welcoming. “Whether it’s a mural, sculpture or interactive installation, it catches the eye and invites people to stop, explore and linger,” she says. “That energy not only attracts visitors but also encourages locals to rediscover their downtown. Once there, they’re more likely to shop, dine and engage with the businesses and spaces around them.”