A stretch of Madison Avenue at Avalon Street in Midtown Memphis is set to be transformed into a piece of public art this Sunday. Artist Khara Woods's crosswalk design will be painted onto the intersection as part of a joint effort between the UrbanArt Commission and the City of Memphis.
The project will bring artist-inspired crosswalks to the Madison Avenue and Avalon Street intersection. Woods designed the artwork, while fabricator Anthony Lee and a team of volunteers will handle the physical installation on the ground. According to the UrbanArt Commission, the project carries a total budget of $14,000, with $4,000 going to Woods as a design honorarium and the remaining $10,000 allocated to fabrication.
A Design Built Around Midtown's Sound and Flavor
Project selection guidelines directed Woods to weave civic slogans like “Heartbeat of Memphis” or “Midtown Memphis” into the design, paired with visual sound waves and imagery nodding to the district's music and culinary heritage, per the same UrbanArt Commission materials.
Lee, who leads the on-the-ground fabrication crew, has his own track record in Memphis public art. He received the Tennessee Arts Commission's FY23 Individual Artist Fellowship in Mural Arts, an honor noted by the Tennessee Arts Commission, and created the “Modern Hieroglyphs” mural, which was nationally recognized in 2009.
Why This Particular Intersection
Madison Avenue and Avalon Street is the site of the crosswalk-art project, bringing a civic art installation to the neighborhood.
UrbanArt Commission representative Lakeisha Edwards framed the broader goal behind projects like this one, saying people should experience art as part of their everyday lives, not just when visiting a museum or gallery. The commission has identified public art projects as a way to fold art into everyday infrastructure, showcase local artistic talent, and shape public spaces that reflect the community around them.
A Streetscape Strategy With Safety Stakes
The project comes amid broader pedestrian-safety concerns. Smart Growth America's 2026 “Dangerous by Design” report, as covered by the Memphis Flyer, named the Memphis metro area the deadliest in the nation for pedestrians, recording 74 annual pedestrian fatalities from 2020 to 2024 and a fatality rate of 5.5 per 100,000 residents.
Local crash data compiled by law enforcement and reported by WREG found that Memphis logged more than 200 pedestrian-involved traffic crashes through late July 2026, following 175 crashes and 20 pedestrian deaths in just the first five months of the year.
Memphis's Longer Public Art Track Record
The Midtown crosswalk project is the latest entry in a much larger civic art portfolio. Founded in 1997, the UrbanArt Commission has managed the City of Memphis's Percent-for-Art Program since 2002, directing capital improvement funding toward public art projects across the city. The Sunday transformation brings that institutional history to Midtown, as Woods's design and Lee's crew turn an ordinary crossing into the neighborhood's newest civic canvas.
