A towering new piece of public art now covers the side of the Whitehall Town and Country Shopping Center on East Broad Street, where a 3,800-square-foot mural celebrating the community has just been unveiled. The sprawling artwork turns a once-blank wall into a vibrant centerpiece for the East Side suburb, blending scale with a deeply collaborative creative process.
According to NBC4, the mural’s theme centers on celebrating the community, and it was brought to life through a partnership between muralist Sarah Eberly and artists from the Goodwill Columbus Art Studio. That studio, the station notes, is an art program built for people with developmental challenges and other barriers. Eberly described the project as one of the most inspiring artistic collaborations she has ever experienced, according to the same report.
A Studio Built Around Inclusion
The Goodwill Columbus Art Studio & Gallery is a program of Goodwill Columbus, according to Columbus Makes Art, and it exists specifically to empower artists with developmental disabilities and other barriers, per Goodwill Columbus. Columbus Makes Art describes the studio as serving more than 80 artists with disabilities and other barriers, while a Dispatch feature from earlier this year put the number at 40 disabled artists honing their craft there — a discrepancy the two outlets do not reconcile. Through the studio’s broader programming, Goodwill Columbus says its artists earn a 70% commission on every sale, according to the organization’s own site.
Part of a Bigger Push for Public Art
The mural arrives amid a wider wave of public art investment on Whitehall’s side of the East Side. Just across the neighborhood, fourth-grade students from Bexley’s Cassingham Elementary School and Columbus’ Shady Lane Elementary School gathered at John Bishop Park to celebrate a mural they completed together, as reported by Ohio State News. That student project was the culmination of a five-month effort supported by Erase the Space, the outlet noted.
Separately, the Murals on Main initiative is working to beautify East Main Street between Bexley and Whitehall with a series of large-scale murals, according to WOSU. Organizers behind that effort want local artists to design pieces reflecting the East Side neighborhood’s culture and diversity, and the push is unfolding as plans continue for a bus rapid transit line along the corridor, WOSU reported. The East Main Street Special Improvement District is partnering on that initiative, and its first completed mural, titled “The Moth Within,” was designed and painted by local artist Justin Withrow, per the same report.
Together, the projects reflect a broader moment for murals across Whitehall and its neighboring communities, with each effort drawing on different partners, timelines, and artists but sharing a common goal of using public walls to reflect local identity.
