Fifteen Newport High School art students spent Wednesday morning with paintbrushes in hand, applying double coats of color to a stretch of the city's floodwall along Dave Cowens Drive. The work is part of a mural project meant to turn a stretch of flood-control concrete into a vibrant, chronological tribute to Newport's history, and this week marked the moment student hands helped bring long-planned panels to life.
The community paint day, held at 737 Dave Cowens Drive, ran for about two hours and used a paint-by-numbers system so students could apply finishing colors and double coats to historic panel sections, according to LINK nky. Peyton Harshfield, the Northern Kentucky-based artist organizing the project alongside the City of Newport and regional arts group ArtsWave, said the students were finishing the mural's colors and applying the double coats, as reported by WLWT. Harshfield is among the ArtWorks mural studio artists.
The floodwall mural celebrates Newport's history through vibrant panels. Some sections sit near stoplights at a fork where traffic splits toward Dayton or Bellevue, Kentucky, per WLWT's report. That placement is deliberate: the design is meant to be bright, vibrant, readable, and easily seen from the road, with imagery that includes the Purple People Bridge and the Bellevue skyline.
A Project Rooted in Newport History
Work on the floodwall mural project began in 2020 to mark Newport's 225th anniversary, according to LINK nky. The first completed mural honors the Southgate Street School, which served as Campbell County's only African American school from 1873 until Newport desegregated its public schools in 1955 following the Brown v. Board of Education decision, as detailed by the NKyTribune. That school building was later converted into the Newport History Museum.
The full initiative is planned as a 19-panel chronological timeline, per the NKyTribune's earlier reporting. The murals sit along Dave Cowens Drive off Interstate 471, near a road fork leading toward Bellevue and Dayton, Kentucky; the corridor also links to the Riverfront Commons Trail, according to city documentation published through OpenGov.
Students Say the Project Offers Room to Create
Nicole Tomas Thomas, one of the participating students, said the project offers creativity and freedom, according to WLWT's report. Fellow student Willow Low-Holmer said she's excited to see the mural's lasting impact when she visits Newport in the future. The station notes the fifteen students contributed both creativity and community involvement as they worked on the panels.
That community input shaped the mural long before students picked up brushes. A mural committee developed the project's overall vision after reviewing nearly 200 responses from a public survey, with residents suggesting landmarks, notable people, and key elements they wanted to see reflected on the wall, per WLWT. Newport High School students then helped bring those suggestions to life on the concrete canvas.
Funding and Regional Comparisons
In June, ArtsWave partnered with Northern Kentucky tourism bureau MeetNKY to award $60,000 in creative placemaking grants to local organizations supporting public art and regional economic vitality, according to LINK nky's reporting on the grant announcement. ArtsWave is also a supporter and collaborator on the floodwall mural project.
Newport's floodwall provides a setting for the murals.
Newport has leaned on student painters before. Northern Kentucky University students also contributed to the Southgate Street School mural. This week's paint day extends that tradition, giving another generation of local students a direct hand in how Newport tells its own story along the river.
