West Side Market is looking for an artist willing to turn a utility-yard structure into a 1,385-square-foot canvas, and the commission comes with a $20,000 paycheck, according to cleveland.com. The call for portfolios marks the first phase of a project that will culminate in a finished mural installed in summer 2027, wrapping around three sides of a new building just north of the Market's historic arcades.
The Call Goes Out for Portfolios
The Cleveland Public Market Corporation, which manages West Side Market, and Destination Cleveland are jointly calling for artist submissions, according to cleveland.com. A review committee representing the Cleveland Public Market Corporation, Destination Cleveland, the City of Cleveland and other key stakeholders will evaluate the submitted portfolios and recommend up to three finalists to move on to full design proposals, per the same report.
Applications must include the artist or team's name and contact information, covering email, phone and mailing address, along with website and social media handles and a resume or CV for each team member involved. A PDF portfolio can include up to ten images of previous work, each listed with its title, media, dimensions, location, a brief description, date completed and project partners if applicable. Professional references from past projects are optional but welcome. Everything has to land in the inbox at [email protected] by close of business on Friday, Dec. 18, as reported by cleveland.com.
A Canvas Built From Infrastructure
The mural itself will wrap a structure that houses infrastructure systems for the Market, and it's not a small undertaking. The proposed area stands 8 feet, 8 inches tall and covers 1,385 square feet spread across three separate wall facings, the report notes. The largest stretch runs 102 linear feet along the structure's south side, facing directly into the Market's North Arcade, with another 16 linear feet on the north side and 42 feet on the east side.
That east-facing wall carries particular weight, since it faces the parking lots most visitors use to enter the Market. Rosemary Mudry said the mural will welcome visitors to the Market, framing the utility structure as something more than a functional necessity. She described it as a space that will house infrastructure systems while serving, in her words, as a palette for beauty and inspiration — and as a way to connect the Market's broader renovation and transformation with public art that embodies the Market's spirit in Cleveland.
Tied to a Bigger Food Hall Overhaul
The mural project isn't happening in isolation. The North Arcade currently functions as storage space, but it's slated to become a prepared food hall focused on local, independent businesses, with expanded seating once renovations are complete, according to the same cleveland.com report. Hannah Belsito, chief experience officer at Destination Cleveland, said the mural will celebrate Cleveland's creativity and identity.
The mural is one piece of a much larger undertaking already underway at the Market. The Transformation Project, pegged at $70 million, showed its first visible results when the KeyBank Produce Arcade had its soft opening in January, as reported by cleveland.com. Basement demolition followed in June, part of a sweeping overhaul that was expected, at the time, to wrap up in summer 2027 — the same season the finished mural is set to go up, according to a separate cleveland.com report.
Murals Aren't New to the Market
West Side Market has painted its walls before. In 1979, the Market commissioned artist Nancy Martt to create two murals covering the building's large main windows, according to West Side Market's own historical account. Those murals, painted over panels that had covered the concourse's arched windows since the 1978-1979 renovation, were ultimately removed during the city's 2001-2004 restoration of the windows, per Cleveland Historical.
Cleveland Historical's 2022 account also noted that fewer than one-third of the Market's original stalls remained occupied at that time, underscoring the stakes behind the current transformation effort. The new mural, along with the planned food hall, represents an attempt to reshape how visitors experience the century-old market as the broader renovation moves toward its summer 2027 finish line.
