A Bird’s Eye History of North Nashville
By Nia Smith, Community Design Coordinator
1 min read During Open Streets, community members started to paint a placekeeping mural as a testament to North Nashville’s staying power, following years of public engagement and a street in transformation. The massive mural, Living Sounds of North Nashville, was created by Ozzy Orosco and Romerus Greer, is shown from above to get the full picture of the story the artists are telling.
Bird's eye view of the ground mural tells the full story while integrating multimodal parking into the design
The Civic Design Center has been working to improve Arthur Ave since 2017, starting with community engagement that asked neighbors how they wanted to use their streetscapes. Following that engagement and a tactical urbanism intervention adjacent to Elizabeth Park, the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure (NDOT) added bike lanes and reworked the flow of traffic. In 2021, a member of the Nashville Youth Design Team, Uma Peters, wrote a blog about how placemaking in the park could strengthen neighborhood connectivity. Finally, when the two way cycle track at Arthur and 11th Ave was fully implemented, a large triangle of public right of way was created.
This year, we identified that triangle of asphalt on Arthur Ave as an activation opportunity for placekeeping, a way of defining the staying power of the residents along Arthur Ave. Through continued public engagement, it became clear that people want to see more street art wherever possible. We worked with local artists, Ozzy Orosco and Romerus Greer, to bring a meaningful ground mural to life. The mural is titled, “The Living Sounds of North Nashville.”
Close up drone shot of the mural, Civic Engagement for Arthur Ave at Pearl Cohn High in 2017, Bird’s eye of the mural, Concept art for the mural on Arthur Ave
Inspired by the work of Fisk University art professor Aaron Douglas, and with their goal to celebrate North Nashville (the Fisk Jubilee singers, the TSU marching band, and the scientists and doctors of Meharry), the artists created a mural that both reflects and represents how knowledge can be true power. To find out more about the projects we are doing in North Nashville, feel free to view our Looby Community Campus project page.
Community engagement at Good Neighbor Fest in 2017 (hosted on Arthur Ave) and 2023 (hosted in Sundial Park). Even though six years have passed, community members across the city still want more art, places to gather and play, and stronger traffic mitigation.