A guide to Charlotte’s public art and murals

This guide covers the public art and murals that have spread across Charlotte over the past fifteen years, from the neighborhood walls in NoDa and Camp North End to the permanent sculpture in Uptown funded by the city’s public art program. The guide is organized by where the work is, because the murals cluster in a handful of places, and it ends with a walk that connects the best of them.

Camp North End

For this, Camp North End is the densest concentration of murals in the city, with most of the outdoor walls across its 76 acre former factory site painted, and the work changes as new pieces go up and old ones are replaced. The site commissions artists directly, hosts mural festivals, and treats its walls as a rotating gallery. A walk through the campus on a weekend afternoon covers more murals than any other single stop in Charlotte, and the food and coffee on site make it a full outing.

NoDa

NoDa is the arts district, and the name came from the galleries and the studios before the bars. The murals along North Davidson Street between 35th and 36th are the oldest continuous concentration in the city, and they change regularly. Our NoDa guide covers the neighborhood, and the murals are the reason to walk the strip in daylight before the bars open. The galleries along the street still run monthly openings, and the studios behind them are where a share of the city’s muralists work.

Plaza Midwood and the east side

Plaza Midwood’s walls along Central Avenue and Commonwealth carry murals that reflect the neighborhood’s older, scrappier character, and Veterans Park anchors the stretch. The murals here are more likely to be commissioned by the businesses whose walls they cover than by a program, and they reflect the neighborhood’s taste more than a curator’s.

Uptown and the public art program

The city runs a public art program funded by a percentage of the cost of public construction, and the permanent pieces it commissions cluster in Uptown: the sculpture around the government center, the work at the light rail stations, the pieces in Romare Bearden Park and First Ward Park. The program publishes a map of its collection, and a walk through the four wards passes most of it. Romare Bearden Park is named for the Charlotte born artist whose collage work is the model for a share of the city’s mural style, and the Gantt Center a few blocks away holds the deepest collection of African American art in the region.

The museums

Worth knowing, The Mint Museum and the Bechtler sit within a block of each other at the Levine Center for the Arts, and the Bechtler’s building by Mario Botta is a piece of public art in its own right, visible from the plaza outside. The museums’ outdoor sculpture and the plaza between them are free to see, and the Firebird sculpture outside the Bechtler is the most photographed piece of public art in Charlotte.

Beyond the city

On that front, The Cabarrus Arts Council in Concord runs four free galleries in the historic county courthouse, and the Avett Brothers mural a block away is the most photographed wall in Cabarrus County. Our Concord guide covers the rest of that downtown. The Independent Picture House north of NoDa sits in a converted building with its own painted exterior, and the neighborhoods around it carry murals that spread out from NoDa as the arts district grew.

Who paints them

Charlotte’s muralists are a mix of local artists who came up through the NoDa studios, artists commissioned from elsewhere for the festivals and the larger walls, and a growing number of artists from the city’s immigrant communities whose work carries the styles of the places they came from. The mural festivals at Camp North End and in NoDa bring the outside artists, and the year round commissions from businesses and the public art program sustain the local ones. Several of the artists sign their work, and the signatures are the way to follow a favorite across the city.

A walk

A route that connects the best of it, on foot or by bike.

• Start at Romare Bearden Park in Uptown and walk the four wards for the permanent public art.
• Take the light rail or the streetcar to First Ward and its park.
• Drive or ride to Camp North End for the densest murals in the city.
• Continue to NoDa and walk North Davidson between 35th and 36th in daylight.
• Finish in Plaza Midwood along Central Avenue, and eat there.

The mural festivals

Charlotte runs mural festivals in spring and autumn, with the largest at Camp North End and in NoDa, and they are the events that bring the outside artists and repaint the biggest walls. A visit timed for a festival sees the work in progress, the artists on lifts and the walls half done, which is a better experience than the finished piece. The festivals publish their walls and their artists ahead of time, and a walk through one on the final weekend covers the new work before it is photographed to death.

Photographing the murals

The murals are meant to be photographed, and the artists and the businesses that commissioned them generally welcome it, but a few things matter. The walls belong to businesses, and standing in a loading dock or a private lot to get the shot is trespassing even if the mural is on the public street. The light is best in the early morning and the late afternoon, and the midday sun flattens the color. And crediting the artist, whose name is usually signed in a corner, is the courtesy the muralists ask for most.

The light rail stations

Every Blue Line station carries public art commissioned through the transit system’s own program, from the platform designs to the sculpture at the entrances, and a ride along the full line is a tour of a share of the city’s permanent collection. The stations in South End and the ones at the northern end near the university carry the largest pieces. Our light rail guide covers the line, and the art at the stations is the reason to look up on the platform.

Sculpture in the neighborhoods

Beyond Uptown, the permanent public art spreads thin but rewards looking. The parks in the older neighborhoods carry pieces commissioned when they were built or renovated, the greenways have markers and small installations along the busiest stretches, and several of the newer developments in South End and NoDa commissioned their own work as a condition of approval. The public art program’s map covers the city’s own pieces, and the private ones are found by walking.

Good to know

Checked September 2026. Murals are painted over, replaced and added constantly, and a wall described here may carry different work by the time you see it. The public art program’s map is the reliable guide to the permanent pieces. The mural festivals run in spring and autumn, and a visit timed for one sees the walls being painted, which is better than seeing them finished.

Know a mural or a piece of public art we should have included? Tell us.