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Historic West End ArtWalk

Historic West End is full of amazing history.  Celebrate history but also look to the future with  murals and sculpture on this ArtWalk.  Start and return to Five Points Plaza.


PARKING:  Available on the surrounding streets or in the Mosaic parking deck

TRANSIT: Gold Line accessible 

Google Map of 5 Points Plaza and BFR Art

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Three curved panels of painted steel stand tall, laser cut with historical Charlotte images.

Start at Five Points Plaza

Title: “Even Higher”

Location: Five Points Plaza

Artist: J. Stacy Utley, Evoke Studio Architecture

Date: 2021

Media: Stainless steel

Artist Info: @jstacyutleyart,


Story: Sponsored by the City of Charlotte, the Arts & Science Council, and the Knight Foundation, this sculpture is the focal point for the Five Points Plaza. Artist J. Stacy Utley is a noted designer and artist with degrees in architecture and art. Utley partnered with Evoke Studio Architecture, a Durham-based architectural firm, to create this sculpture and the four additional gateway pieces along West Trade Street. Together, the sculptures form a “Faith Walk” which links the corridor and plaza and tells the story of Historic West End. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Free-standing sculpture
  • Abstract form

Make the Connection:

Awarded the project in 2018, the artists began an intensive process of community engagement by listening to the elders of this historic, long-established community. Through this process of conversations with leaders and residents, ideas around heritage, roots, and quilts inspired the artists. As you look upward, angular panels illustrate the ground-breaking walk of Dorothy Counts-Scoggins in 1957 to integrate Harding High School.  Additional panels show the Excelsior Club and Biddle Hall of Johnson C. Smith University. In an abstract rendition of arms reaching high in prayer, viewers are inspired to continue the walk upward with these principles of excellence. 

A utility box vinyl-wrapped with polychromatic artwork and images of West End neighborhood icons.

Located in the plaza

Title: Utility Box Wrap

Location: Five Points Plaza

Artist: J. Stacy Utley

Date: 2021

Media: Vinyl wrap

Artist Info: @jstacyutleyart, 


Story: The very first vinyl wraps for a utility box were sponsored by Fort Collins, CO in 2004 as a graffiti abatement program. Now many municipalities use them as a public art tool and beautification program. Stacy Utley is the artist of the “Even Higher” sculpture in the center of the plaza and also designed the vinyl wrap.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Overlapping of figures create dynamic movement
  • Polychromatic color scheme

Make the Connection:

Utley builds his composition full of images of Historic West End. Layered in front are people in bright dress patterns and colors. In the background are familiar icons of the past like the Excelsior Club (also on the large sculpture), the water tower up the street a bit, Biddle Gate, and the former overstreet walkway. His style echos that a bit of Romare Bearden’s collages and Amy Sherald’s portraits, while adding a fresh, bright placemaking tool.

A vibrant portrait of a Black woman with strong geometric shapes. Her hand levitates a leaf.

Mural on side of Atrium building

Title: Kindred Mural

Location: 1801 Rozzelles Ferry Road at Five Points Plaza

Artist: Georgie Nakima 

Date: 2022

Media: Spray paint

Artist Info: @gardenofjourney 


Story: Georgie Nakima is an established studio art and street artist painting nationally in mural festivals and artist residencies. Nakima’s work celebrates African culture through the use of symbols and references to textile patterns, while also connecting to the artist’s study and love of biology and plants.  This mural is part of the Kindred project funded by the Knight Foundation.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Geometric shapes and patterns
  • Limited palette with strong cool blues and warm yellows and oranges


Make the Connection:

Nakima invites you to think.  While her murals always bring bright colors, strong geometric shapes and a powerful image of a Black woman, she purposely wants you to create the rest of the story.  


What do the piercing eyes of the figure tell you? How is the plant imagery connected to the portrait?  Are there symbols that connects to community?  Explore all of this and more in this super-scaled mural.

Colorful ceramic tiles patterned with Adinkra symbols adorn a planter inside Five Points Plaza.

Cross street to other side of plaza

Title: “Gather Together” 

Location: Five Points Plaza 

Artist: Michele Teujola Turner 

Date: 2004 

Media: Ceramic tile 

Artist Info: www.micheletejuolaturner.com  


Story:  Commissioned in 2004 by the Arts & Science Council, this ceramic installation has new life after it was moved and reinstalled with the redesign of the Five Points Plaza in 2021.  Michele Teujola Turner is a storyteller and her primary medium of painted gourds connects to her exploration of African-American traditions.  Turner has work in the Mint Museum here in Charlotte and several other pieces of public art.       


Key Formal Elements: 

  • Polychromatic color scheme
  • Geometric shapes  

Make the Connection:

Turner draws inspiration from traditional quilting patterns, African textiles, and uses Adinkra symbols in this work.  Adinkra symbols originally appeared in textiles, architecture and clay in West Africa.  Look for the spirals which symbolize that even the strong have to be humble.  And concentric circles which stand for greatness, charisma, and leadership.  For families, make sure you download our Historic West End Activity Guide for fun activities based on the art.   


Also note the seats which are made to look like African drums.   

This mural depicts local historical figures as your neighbors in front of a silhouette of a house.

Rita's Mural

Title: Rita’s Mural

Location: 1806 Rozelle’s Ferry Road

Artist: Lo’Vonia Parks

Date: 2022

Media: Spray paint and brush

Artist Info: @lovoniaparks


Story: Funded by a Charlotte Urban Design Placemaking grant, this mural is a bright and colorful celebration of joy by artist Lo’Vonia Parks. Parks is a Charlotte artist, muralist, and illustrator and was voted Best Visual Artist by QC Nerve in 2021. Parks has a mural in South End, Uptown and at Pauline’s Tea Bar. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Highly saturated colors in a polychromatic color scheme
  • Repetition of yellow “dorito shapes” create unity

Make the Connection:

Make the Connection: Community. History. Joy. Parks used input gathered from a community survey to create a mural that reflected what the community wanted to see in a new mural. Here the outline of the house serves to frame the composition of the mural and provide structure, like our community homes. All of the figures in the mural are real people important to the history of the neighborhoods surrounding Historic West End. And the bright colors, fun shapes, and idea of coming together on a front porch for ice cream celebrate the joy of community.

A mostly transparent bus shelter shows silhouettes of a man typing and a woman reading.

Walk toward uptown and cross at transit shelter

Title: “The Worth of That, is That Which It Contains and That is This, and This With Thee Remains” 

Location: Gold Line Light Rail Platform 

Artist: George Bates 

Date: 2021 

Media: Laminated windscreen glass 

Artist info: @bates_george  


Story: Federal Transit Administration Circular 9400.1A encourages the inclusion of art in transit systems.  According to the circular, "Good design and art can improve the appearance and safety of a facility, give vibrancy to its public spaces, and make patrons feel welcome."  In other words, design matters.  For the Gold Line, up to 1% of design and construction costs was set aside to create public art.  CATS Arts in Transit program hired artists as part of design teams.  The resulting art is often functional, and integrated into the architecture.  


George Bates is a New Jersey based public artist.  His public works are in transit systems all over the country and he exhibits his studio work widely.  


Key Formal Elements: 

  • Polychromatic color schemes
  • Positive shapes of the figures and main elements  

Make the Connection:

Let’s talk about that title.  The title of these series of windscreen panels comes from a 1954 Johnson C. Smith University yearbook entry that referenced Shakespeare’s sonnet 74.  Bates was given access to years of JSCU yearbooks and archives and he used those histories to inform his designs.  Some of his designs reference people, places, monuments, and the everyday images that make up a long, complex history of the Historic West End.    

A mural depicting the story of civil rights activist Charles Jones through four portraits.

Walk along Bruns Ave to 5th St

Title: Charles Jones Mural

Location: Corner of Bruns Ave and 5th St

Artist: Abel Jackson

Date: 2022

Media: Spray paint

Artist Info: @artbyabel


Story: This mural was funded by a Charlotte Urban Design Placemaking grant and Historic West End. Artist Abel Jackson has several murals on the HWE ArtWalk and in Uptown, Camp North End, and NoDa. Jackson was voted best muralist in 2021 by QC Nerve. His bright colors, realistic portraits, and smooth, air-brushy transitions are all hallmarks of his distinctive style. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Use of value scale in three black and white portraits
  • Focal point of the color portrait on the right

Make the Connection:

Make the Connection: Sit down. If you can. This is important. This is the story of Charles Jones. Jones was a national civil rights activist, attorney and neighborhood leader. He was known for his support of non-violent protests and led a sit-in protest at the Woolworths in downtown Charlotte, only days after the Greensboro sit-ins. He joined the Freedom Riders to protest segregated buses. He marched against racial segregation in veteran housing in DC. Jackson was also our neighbor and lived for many years in the Biddleville neighborhood where he kept a koi pond. 

An Afro-futurist mural featuring bright colors and different themes to appreciate, like ancestry.

Walk back toward West Complex

Title: “Manifest Future”

Location: 1600 West Trade retaining wall

Artist: Janelle Dunlap, Georgie Nakima, Sloane Siobhan 

Date: 2018

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @denise_thugstable, @gardenofjourney, @namasteloner 


Story: With support from the Knight Foundation and the Charlotte League for Creative Interventionists, three artists collaborated on this mural to reclaim and celebrate Black space in this parking lot of the former A & P. Curator Janell Dunlap worked with the sponsors and the community to identify the space for the mural and artists for the mural. Community workshops and painting days engaged and empowered residents through art. In this symbolic Afro-futurist style mural, the title, “Manifest Future” refers to seeing and making possible a future where Black voices and culture are embedded in decision making and ideas around progress. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Variety of different styles of the artists
  • Scale

Make the Connection:

Like many older, close-in neighborhoods, this area of Historic West End is gentrifying. Gentrification often translates to displacement for original communities and cultures. In 2000, almost 100% of these surrounding neighborhoods were African-American. But twenty years later, development is bringing new populations and forcing out the old community and at times, knowledge about its history. With their mural, the artists want to reclaim this space and increase access to art in areas that don’t traditionally have access to art.

A geometric-patterned mural with the word "reclamation" above a totem-like figure with wings.

Focus on work by Georgie Nakima

Title: “Tree of Life,” “Faith,” “Unity” and “Reclamation”

Location: 1600 West Trade retaining wall

Artist: Georgie Nakima 

Date: 2018

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @gardenofjourney 


Story: The program for the mural includes different themes around the idea of celebrating Black culture. Georgie Nakima is an established studio art and street artist painting nationally in mural festivals and artist residencies. Some of her earliest murals in Charlotte have now been lost so this is an important record of her early work. Nakima’s work celebrates African culture through the use of symbols and references to textile patterns, while also connecting to the artist’s study and love of biology and plants. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Geometric shapes and patterns
  • Bilateral symmetry of “Reclamation”

Make the Connection:

Nakima’s work makes a connection to the patterns and symbols known as Adinkra from the Asante people of West Africa. And there’s often a reference to  plants, symmetry, and spirals, which all show the inter-connectness of our universe. Look closely at the “Reclamation” panel to find patterns, biology, and then look at “Unity” to see how the artist incorporated a spiral form.  

A group of five elders dressed in white, with pots and walking sticks, under the word "Ancestry."

Focus on work by Sloane Siobhan

Title: “Ancestry,” “Creativity,” and “Group Work”

Location: 1600 West Trade retaining wall

Artist: Sloane Siobhan 

Date: 2018

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @namasteloner 


Story: Artist Sloane Siobhan grew up in Charlotte and was a recent graduate with a BFA from Appalachian University when she started this project. While her work had been included in a group show here in Charlotte, this was her first major mural commission. Siobhan completed a second mural for Charlotte Shout in 2019 that is uptown. She is primarily known for her work in oils and this was her first experience using spray paint.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Oh, the highlights in her portraits
  • Implied motion of her figures

Make the Connection:

Siobhan is known as a studio artist for her stunning, realistic, and lush portraits and in this mural, each of her panels includes a portrait. Please take note of the incredible highlights and shadows on each of the figures that the artist created using a spray can. Yes, using a spray can for the first time. Notice how Siobhan’s panels are more realistic than the abstract panels of Nakima but how each tells a story rooted in Black culture.

Black & white portraits on a colorful background depict African-American musicians with NC ties.

On side wall of former A&P store

Title: “NC8 Greats”

Location: 1600 West Trade Street

Artist: T’Afo Feimster, Abel Jackson

Date: 2020

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @tafoarts, @artbyabel


Story: T’Afo Feimster and Abel Jackson collaborated on “The Great Escape” across the street and again on this mural. Jackson is a noted mural artist with murals in NoDa and uptown and Feimster has been involved in preserving Black culture for several decades in Charlotte. The mural was commissioned and funded by the Duke Endowment, Johnson C. Smith University, and Historic West End.


Key Formal Elements:

  • Grey-scale portraits
  • Saturated colors of background

Make the Connection:

Each of these portraits is of an African-American musician with roots in North Carolina. Thelonius Monk was a self-taught pianist and born in Rocky Mount. Pianist and singer-song writer Nina Simone was born in Tryon. John Coltrane, saxophonist and jazz musician was born in Hamlet. Saxophonist Maceo Parker was born in Kinston. Max Roach, a drummer with a connection to bepop drumming, was born in Pasquotank County. Black Mountain is the birthplace of Robert Flack. George Clinton was born in Kannapolis and Chuck Brown was born in Gaston County.

A mural showing an upside down astronaut bust against a galaxy background. There is a code written.

Continue to other side of building

Location: 1600 West Trade Street

Artist: Marcus Kiser and Jason Woodberry

Date: 2020

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @marcus_kiser, @jason_woodberry


Story: Artists Marcus Kiser and Jason Woodberry, along with Quentin Talley, produce  a project called Intergalactic Soul. Intergalactic Soul is an installation and exhibit that traces the adventures of two young, black astronauts traveling through space confronting social justice issues as a person of color. Both Kiser and Woodberry are multimedia artists and combine elements of fine arts, comics, graffiti and technology in their art. This mural was created in partnership with the Knight Foundation and Historic West End. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Limited color palette
  • Symmetrical balance with the astronaut and the text

Make the Connection:

The artists balance the past on the right with the future on the left. On the left, the astronaut, a connection to Afro-futurism, floats freely amongst the nebulas and stars. Why do you think the artist rendered the astronaut upside-down?


On the right, Woodberry presents his “LHAXX.” Woodberry invented a sort of signature text or hieroglyphic language which he calls “LHAXX.” It is named after Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cells contributed to groundbreaking medical research after they were harvested from her body without her permission or knowledge. 


Woodberry’s hieroglyphs are a representation of a famous quote by James Baldwin, noted African-American novelist, playwright, poet and racial activist. 

The portrait of a young boy, eyes closed, an entire city history flowing from the back of his head.

Walk to the I-77 Underpass

Title: West End Gateway mural 

Location: Trade Street I-77 Underpass 

Artist: Jamil Dyair Steele 

Date: 2022 

Media: Acrylic paint 

Artist info: @dyairart  


Story: The City of Charlotte sponsored this monumental mural as part of their Historic West End revitalization program.  Jamil Dyair Steele, an artist, educator, and graduate of West Charlotte High School was chosen as one of the finalists for the mural.  Community groups voted and ranked the mural proposals and Steele’s proposal was chosen as the winner.  


Key Formal Elements: 

  • Scale
  • Asymmetrical balance with focal point of young girl and boy’s profile  

Make the Connection:

Steele chose to find a way to unite the past and present of Historic West End as a way of considering its growth into the future.  On the wall closest to uptown, you will find images of present-day West End.  Look for images of the present day Five Points Plaza, the JCSU marching band, NW School or the Arts and others.  On the side pointing to JCSU, you will see images of the important history of the area.  Dorothy Scoggins, who integrated Harding High during the Civil Rights Era, Julius Chambers, an important Civil Rights Era attorney, landmark buildings like the Excelsior Club, Grand Theatre and many other images tell the story of area’s past.  Enjoy it all including the pink and white dogwood blossoms that were spray painted by members of the community.  

A neighborhood gateway mural featuring iconic elements from West End set against the city skyline.

Walk up to 1545 West Trade Street

Title: “Mosaic Village”

Location: 1545 West Trade Street

Artist: Abel Jackson with Big Trouble Studios

Date: 2020

Media: Acrylic paint 

Artist Info: @artbyabel, @bigtroublestudios


Story: Muralist Abel Jackson paints a welcoming gateway mural to West End. Jackson revives an older composition he painted that would have been lost with new construction and highlights iconic buildings from the Biddleville neighborhood. Biddleville, one of Charlotte’s oldest surviving black neighborhoods, is celebrated with references to Johnson C. Smith University, reminders of its thriving, culturally elite black population, and references to its past and future.  


Key Formal Elements:

  • Lines of perspective guide you to the center of the arch
  • Symmetrical balance with the historic trolley and the new light rail car

Make the Connection:

The Johnson C. Smith University stone gateway arch provides a focal point as each of the historic buildings radiate out from the arch. Originally called the Biddle Institute and founded in 1867 to “train leaders for newly freed black populations,” Johnson C. Smith is Charlotte’s historically black college. The white stucco Excelsior Club on the far right was the first black social club in Charlotte where many black musicians played to standing room only crowds. In the middle of the composition, the Grand Theatre, a black-only movie house, the Old Mount Carmel Baptist Church, one of many churches designed by noted Charlotte architect Louis Asbury, and Biddle Hall’s brick clocktower rise up to meet the sky. On the left, Garr Memorial Church is painted with their iconic “Jesus Saves” sign which used to be visible from I-85. Each side of the composition is anchored by transportation as seen in the historic trolley which came to Biddleville in 1903 and the current new light rail car. 

A sun-bleached mural highlighting the arts program at nearby Johnson C Smith University.

On next building

Title: JCSU Arts Factory mural

Location: 1545 W. Trade Street

Artist: Hasaan Kirkland 

Date: 2013

Media: Acrylic paint

Artist Info: @kirklandhasaan

Story: Long time educator, curator, and artist, Hasaan Kirkland was an arts faculty member at JSCU when he and his students completed this mural. It is on the side of the Arts Factory building which then housed the dance, graphic design, film, video production, studio arts, and theatre arts. Kirkland, now teaching in Seattle, describes his style as expressionism and neo-abstract.  

Key Formal Elements:

  • Extensive use of line and contour lines (look at the bull)
  • Lack of negative space

Make the Connection:

The focal point of this piece is the bull which is larger in scale and the center of the mural. The golden bull (Smitty) is the mascot of JCSU, and here he is surrounded by representations of all of the arts taught at the university. Note the date of 2013. This is so early in mural history in Charlotte. 


Originally this mural was covered in color but over time, it has faded. Especially the yellow which was the original color of the bull. Why does this happen? Ultraviolet light causes chemicals in certain dyes to fade and reds and yellows are often the first to fade. 

A mural depicting slaves on a cotton plantation with imagery of loss, pain, and intimidation.

In small park with fence out front

Title: The Great Escape

Location: 1635 Trade Street

Artist: Abel Jackson, T’Afo Feimster

Date: 2014

Media: Acrylic paint on wooden panels

Artist Info: @artbyabel, @tafoarts


Story: “The Great Escape” is a series of eight painted panels about the Underground Railroad by Charlotte artists Abel Jackson and T’Afo Feimster. The exhibit is presented by LATIBAH (Life and Times in Black American History), the Collard Green Museum, and Historic West End. Originally, LATIBAH and Collard Green Museum founder, T’Afo Feimster, received a grant from the Arts & Science Council to prepare the panels for exhibition in his museum space. When that space was lost, the panels were moved to this small pocket park with the assistance of Historic West End. 


Key Formal Elements:

  • Narrative format that tells a story

Make the Connection:

“The Great Escape” is based on the Underground Railroad, a network of secret places and people used by enslaved and formerly enslaved African-Americans to escape into free areas. From the beginning panel, where we see the woman at the plantation to the final panel of welcoming into Philadelphia, the artists tell a story of escape, peril, fear, tragedy, and courage. 


Check out the separate “The Great Escape” ArtWalk to learn more about each panel. 

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