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Art in the Open

Drab gray concrete walls in Joliet, you have met your match. And they are the Friends of Community Public Art.

With paintbrushes and rollers in hand, artists have been painting huge murals on Joliet walls for more than 30 years. With the formal organization of the Friends of Community Public Art and its mission of beautifying the city and memorializing its past, artists have kept Joliet's history alive in vivid colors.

Whether they're telling the tale of Joliet's Slovenian immigrants or depicting the Clean Water Act of 1972, FCPA projects bring the community together by drawing from its talented pool of artists. By the looks of the FCPA's public art, which includes not only paintings but also sculptures and mosaics, these artists sure have been keeping busy.

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Downtown Joliet

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Explore another of Illinois' public art projects, Chicago's Archi-treasures, which gives old neighborhoods a colorful face lift.

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Join us in Joliet as we take a tour of this ever more colorful city with Friends of Community Public Art co-founder Kathleen Farrell.

 

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Kathleen Scarboro and Kathleen Farrell's painting on Jefferson Street reminds viewers of what nearby Bluff Street once looked like.

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Kathleen Scarboro decorated this overpass on Jefferson with "A Patchwork of Hearth and Home."

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Javier Chavira's painting celebrates the E.J. & E. Railroad and its Mexican workers.

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Kathleen Farrell's commemorates Fall with this mosaic at Cunningham Grade School.

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L. Dragovan's mural depicts the immigrant's trek from Slovenia to America.

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L. Dragovan's mural depicts the immigrant's trek from Slovenia to America.

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"The Boy and the Rose" greets drivers on N. 129th Infantry Road.

 

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