‘Murals Across Ohio’ Highlights Our State’s Public Art

Whether in Ohio’s big cities or the Buckeye State’s tiniest towns, public artworks have rich stories to tell. Donna Collins, executive director of the Ohio Arts Council, established Murals Across Ohio to catalog these large-scale pieces. The program highlights murals that depict historic milestones, celebrate unique cultures and envision a brighter future.

When Collins put out a call for murals that fit the bill, she immediately received close to 60 responses, and by June 2025, there were over 150 submissions. Murals are added to an interactive map on the America 250-Ohio website, where visitors can click on a plot point to see a photo, description and address for each piece.

Small towns are represented, with pieces such as Circleville’s Pumpkin Show 100th Anniversary mural, a work by Eric Henn that depicts one of our state’s beloved fall festivals, and Oxford Hive, a piece from Joseph Prescher that honors the town’s status as the birthplace of the modern beehive, invented in 1851 by apiarist L.L. Langstroth. Dirk Rozich’s Ashville Fourth of July Parade mural also stands out for its depiction of a marching band in a parade that is packed with details for the viewer to uncover. 

“It’s just rich with hidden messages. … Visitors can really spend hours there, discovering and interpreting the details,” Collins says. “It’s things like that that make this special. I may not have ever seen that mural if not for this project.”

The Buckeye State’s cities find their way onto the map with Grain to Glass, a Cincinnati mural by Jim Effler that portrays each step in the beer-making process and pays homage to the Queen City’s deep ties to the industry. The Glass City River Wall, a massive artwork designed by Gabe Gault, spans 28 silos along the Maumee River in Toledo and honors the area’s
Indigenous history.

“You start seeing the entire picture of not just public art and murals,” Collins says, “but the depiction of what’s going on in all corners of the state, how that’s impacted the history, evolution and development of Ohio and its importance in the history of the United States.”

For more information about Murals Across Ohio, visit america250-ohio.org/murals-across-ohio.

The America 250-Ohio publication was created in partnership with the America 250-Ohio Commission. For more information on America 250-Ohio, visit america250-ohio.org.