TheAvenue of Murals is apublic art corridor featuring a series ofmurals along Madison Street inPortland, Oregon, United States.
The Avenue of Murals is apublic art corridor with approximately 20murals along Madison Street insoutheast Portland. The works are painted on columns underneath the Hawthorne Bridge Viaduct, between theWillamette River and Second Avenue.[1] According to thePortland Tribune, the series "[transformed] a once dark and dreary area into a vibrant public art corridor celebrating the past, present, and future" of the city's Central Eastside.[2]
The Portland Street Art Alliance (PSAA) began collaborating with local groups to create the corridor in 2022.[2] Central Eastside Together has contributed to the project.[3]
In 2023, the PSAA launched the Viaduct Arts Column Mural Initiative and hired local artist Hayden Senter to design and paint four murals commemorating Portland institutions at the intersection of Madison and Water Avenue. This first phase of the project had two columns that pay tribute to the originalLovejoy Columns by Tom Stefopoulos, one inspired by thePortland Rose Festival'sdragon boat races, and another focused on the Ground Score Association, which the PSAA describes as the city's "democratic worker association of dumpster divers, canners, and waste pickers".[4]
In 2024, the Central Eastside Industrial Council and Central Eastside Together hosted a bike ride along the corridor.[5]
For the project's third phase, artists Paola De La Cruz and Kyra Watkins, the PSAA, and theRegional Arts & Culture Council worked to add seven additional murals between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Second Avenue in 2025. Three of the murals were by De La Cruz and four representing various local industries (fishing, produce trade, shipping, sports) were by Watkins.[2]
In 2024,KGW said the murals "add to the district's reputation as a public art destination, as well as revitalize the space".[3]
