By Sarah Wang, The Daily Tar Heel | Oct 7, 2026 | City & State
Photo by Taylor Stancil
Chapel Hill Town Council approved its fiscal year 2027 Percent for Art plan at its Sept. 23 meeting, allowing the council to designate a share of a Town capital construction projects budget for public art.
The plan includes directing $63,040 toward artwork at Cedar Falls Park, along the Fordham Boulevard Sidepath and on town streets and sidewalks. Another $2,000 is designated for repairs to art at the Chapel Hill Public Library.
Steve Wright, the Town’s public art coordinator, said the program does not apply automatically to every construction project. Staff and Chapel Hill residents are able to recommend eligible projects each year, but the council decides which ones receive funding. The artwork can be placed at the construction site, or the money can be pooled for a project elsewhere in Chapel Hill.
The largest project in this year’s plan is tied to the reconstruction of the tennis courts at Cedar Falls Park. The Town has designated $33,000 for artistic enhancements to a pathway or entrance near the courts, or both, with the work planned for spring 2027.
Another $23,640 is designated for art along the Fordham Boulevard Sidepath. Both projects appeared in last year’s plan but were delayed.
Wright said public art brightens the town, attracts businesses and tourists, makes infrastructure more appealing and educates the community.
Of the $6,400 in streets and sidewalks funds, $5,400 is designated for three new storm drain murals. The remaining $1,000 will pay stipends to community members and artists reviewing designs for Safe Routes to School ground murals, a project that works to paint bright designs on streets and crosswalks to slow cars down and aid walking children.
Merrill Robinson, the Town’s public works stormwater community education coordinator, helps select artists for the storm drain murals and reviews designs with Wright. She said she hopes the Percent for Art program will bring awareness to storm drains, which people may not notice otherwise. Robinson said she wants the murals to make people think about what happens after rainwater disappears beneath the street. During outreach, she said, people sometimes assume storm drains carry water to a treatment plant.
“We’re trying to highlight that that’s not the case and provide it as an educational opportunity for people to find out that there is this direct connection between our storm drains and our creeks,” Robinson said.
Robinson said she wants the murals to help people realize why it is important to keep trash, fertilizer and other pollutants out of storm drains.
Cate Skiles, a UNC student majoring in studio art and media and journalism, said art in public spaces gives people something to notice and discuss in their daily lives.
“Art can be functional, it can be pretty, it can be disturbing, it can be welcoming,” she said.
The $2,000 set aside in the plan for Chapel Hill Public Library will go toward repairs in the art piece “Unbound,” which has been on display in the library for a decade.
Staff are considering putting art along the sidewalks of Ephesus Church Road for the FY 2028 plan, with an anticipated $22,000 budget. That proposal has not yet come before the council for approval.
“Public art enlivens the community, the daily lives of people as they move through the town,” Wright said. “It’s, ideally, a reflection of the community – its values and interests and what makes Chapel Hill different from another place.”