Straight Up Art partners with Downtown New Haven property owners and artists to transform nondescript surfaces into sites of public art making. We invite artists to create artworks that stimulate excitement, thought, and desire to take care of each other and the Downtown environment we share.
During a two-round selection process, prospective artists are encouraged to walk the Downtown neighborhood streets where the walls are located, learn about the local history, and appreciate the context in which they are contributing their creativity to.
Public art serves to connect our past, present, and future through shared space and the power of art, and candidates who not only honor the deep history and vibrant diversity of the New Haven, but who are active members of the community are strongly encouraged to apply.
COMING SOON…
The next SUA mural is in progress at downtown NHV’s State Street Station! Artist Eric March is working this fall to reimagine the Stations State Street-facing concrete “façade” with color and creativity. Follow Eric’s updates on Instagram!
2024 MURALs
Jahz Bend
Artist: Jahmane
Location: 78 Audubon Street, beside the LAZ Parking Garage
Description: This mural draws from my "Fabric of the City" body of work, which is inspired by the rich history of Gee's Bend quilt motifs. I see quilts as a representation of the diverse cultural fabric that make up our cities. The abstract shapes and unexpected color combinations reflect the patchwork of people that make cities thrive. Quilts also symbolize the power to recycle discarded ideas and dreams into news forms of art and expression."
Welcome to New Haven
Artist: Jax the Catalyst
Location: 213 Crown Street, inside the Crown Street Parking Garage
Description: I wanted to highlight the variety of offerings available in the downtown area, and even beyond. From the diversity, sense of society as a whole and various cultures, as well as the various experiences visitors might expect. Being a frequent visitor to New Haven, I wanted to highlight both the things I have seen and experienced there. My goal was to highlight the people and the community of New Haven, together with the diversity of cultures and activities, cuisine, and experiences that can be found in the downtown area.
2023 MURAL
Shifting Perspective
Artist: Lindaluz Carillo
Location: 151 Orange Street, above Strange Ways
Description: The intention behind this concept is to utilize the space differently by playing around with perspective and depth. On the far left side there is a hand holding a sunflower which symbolizes the sun coming out of a portal in the sky. The illustrations on the right captures a young individual submerged in a body of water gazing up to the sky.
This was designed with the intention to play with perspective and imagination and conveys how changing your perspective can help bring new light into your world. We can’t and shouldn’t see things from one side, there are multiple truths to our life experiences and I believe the more we understand that the closer we are to finding balance within ourselves.
2022 MuralS
Coming to New Haven
Artist: FUNQEST
Location: 278 Orange Street
Description: MR. NO LIMIT, FUNQEST’s symbolic character, is a superhero who appears worldwide, making the area brighten and shiny by using various colors and precise and fine lines. MR. NO LIMIT sometimes leaves the messages to encourage and cheer up residents and tourists alike.
The first impression of New Haven when FUNQEST visited was spotless, calm, and beautiful cityscape, and he enjoyed spending the time and seeing the area. On the other hand, he felt that the place where Site A was located was less energetic. But if Site A added FUNQEST art with his vibrant color style, the atmosphere would be more impressive and brighter. So he designed these pop and colorful styles for the area, making it more attractive in hopes people feel happy and loved as he felt in New Haven.
EQ
Artist: Marshun Art
Location: Center & Orange alleyway
Description: In music, EQ stands for Equalization, which is a plug-in intended to manipulate the frequency content of your recordings, and help all the elements of your production work together sonically. I want to display an EQ that stands for our connection to each other by being mindful of each other’s frequencies and experiences so that ultimately we can work together and create a place of harmony.
2021 MURALS
Connecticut Carnivores
Artist: Bu Lei Tu Location: Temple Plaza, 160 Temple Street
Description: In 2021 at this mural’s painting, Temple Street Plaza is barely two decades old; a blip on the timescale this mural seeks to explore. This site has many past lives. In recent history it’s been a bank, a hotel, then a Parish House for Boys, but its longest standing identity is as a natural wetland that supports a rich biodiversity.
Before becoming an urban park squeezed between a parking garage and apartment buildings, this vital, and once plentiful, habitat supported a wide variety of flora and fauna, including fourteen different species of carnivorous plants. From bejeweled Droseras to aquatic/terrestrial Utricularia to Sarracenia Purpurea, these carnivorous plants depend on peat moss which require thousands of years to mature. Just a couple centuries of cultivating this land for human needs have greatly reduced the number of swamps in Connecticut, a pattern repeated all over the world.
May walking down these painted steps be to us like strolling through lush green terrain. May we be provoked to consider what impacts our footprints can have on this planet, which is ultimately our legacy.
Sanctuary City of Past, Present, and Future
Artist: Sam “Big Sam Paints” Weinberger with Miguel Angel Mendoza Location: Pitkin Plaza
Description: This mural is inspired by the diverse community of New Haven and the ideas of past, present, and future for those many immigrants living in New Haven. I was inspired by the incredible pasts that these immigrants have lived and how far they have come to now be living in New Haven in the present, and how much they will add to New Haven in the future.
The mural depicts a progression from left to right starting on the left in Mexico, representing the immigrant past. There are artistic inspirations from Mexican artists, specifically Frida Kahlo with the flowers and butterfly hat. There are also other traditional artistic Mexican influences such as the colors, sun, and style of the tree. In the middle of the mural, a boy strapped to his mother looks back into the past while the mother looks into the future.
Miguel Mendoza, an artist and immigrant living with his family here in New Haven, inspired the portrait artwork in this mural with his pencil drawings of his family. On the right side, the future can be seen with the downtown New Haven skyline in the distance, an optimistic child, herons taking refuge in a nature preserve, and a pup chasing a frisbee (as New Haven was where the frisbee was invented). This portion of the mural depicts a joyful day in New Haven, one that’s full of optimism for the future and bolstered by the deep and rich history of the immigrant experience.
2020 muralS
Ninth Square in Bloom
Artist: Francisco Del Carpio-Beltran
Description: The Blooming of Ninth Square pays homage to New Haven’s original urban plan and the ever-changing landscape of its Ninth Square neighborhood. Since 2001, when Svigals + Partners moved to Orange Street, the team has witnessed a lot of transformation in this corner of Downtown: from the shuttering of a furniture district to the demolition of the Coliseum to the founding of Artspace to the emergence of State House, SeeClickFix, and the Pride Center. Memories are still shared about the days attending organ lessons at Loomis Temple of Music and picking up treats at KarmelKorn (present day Vito’s deli). Others think of the former Alisa’s House of Salsa and the more recent Rumberos Studio. This neighborhood, our neighborhood, is anything but static. The mural design captures the movement, possibility, love, hope, and creativity found in Ninth Square.
Color Balance
Artist: Michael DeAngelo
Description: Color Balance features a healthcare worker who extends her angelic touch to an essential workforce member whose job sets him up to be overly exposed to the virus. The exchange of cool to warm complimentary colors across the scene highlights healing on the move through compassionate human outreach, just as a parent soothes the burn of child’s scraped knee with an ice pack. The message here is very clear: essential workforce members, like those in healthcare and public transportation, are constantly caring selflessly for the public. Without these brave people doing their job, no one else can do their own. Now more than ever is the time for community building and healing actions of love. The figures in the mural are residents and workers in Downtown New Haven who work at Yale New Haven Health and CT Transit.
The World We Left Behind
Artist: Alexander Fournier
Description: The World We Left Behind takes viewers back in time to a not-so-alternative universe, reminiscent of the late 1800’s when technological innovations like the steam locomotive, black and white motion pictures, and electricity lighting up homes and streets were novelties. All of these advancements were framed by streets lined with ornate brick and brownstone mansions and resurgences of Gothic architecture in institutional buildings. While it may be a time dating decades ago, its impact remains today upon our imaginations, urban fabric and patterns of life. From this landscape, we are breaking out into a new way to be.
IN THE MEDIA
The Arts Paper: In “Arts District”, A Mural Taps Into Alabama History | September 10, 2024 Yale Daily News: If These Walls Could Talk | October 4, 2023 CT Insider: Marvelous Murals: Take a tour of CT’s vibrant, expanding world of outdoor public art | April 7, 2023 The Arts Paper: New “Marsh” Mural Brightens Ninth Square | September 22, 2022 New Haven Independent: Virtual Reality Artist Makes Walls And Streets Move | May 18, 2021 Fox 61 (article): Out of the box and inside the lines a mega mural project in New Haven | September 9, 2020
Fox 61 (video): Out of the box and inside the lines a mega mural project in New Haven | September 9, 2020
New Haven Register: Muralists bring color, vision to New Haven’s 9th Square neighborhood | September 8, 2020 The Arts Paper: Murals Breathe Life Into Changing Ninth Square | September 7, 2020
The New Haven Independent: Muralists Bring Life to Public Walls | September 7, 2020
