Local designer Sandy Hill took a trip to Argentina and upon returning was inspired to highlight and honor Albuquerque’s public art in the ways that other world-class cities do. With her unique set of skills as Creative Director at Studio Hill Design, she set her mind to developing a sleek website that catalogues our city’s murals, which can be found at murosabq.com. She took a moment to tell us a little bit about this new resource for urban art explorers.Alibi: What inspired this project? Hill: I spent this February in Buenos Aires and, while I was there, took a mural tour with [urban art organization] graffitimundo. Argentina really celebrates their artists and street art. There were people from several different countries on my small tour, and I realized there is a great international interest in murals. I’m always looking for ways to build up Albuquerque’s image, both nationally and with locals, so I decided to promote our rockin’ collection of unique street art.Why is it important to have a catalog? Many of these murals are in back alleys or off the beaten path. When we showed our prototype website to local folks who know murals well, even they kept seeing ones they were unfamiliar with. Many of the great murals would rarely be seen without this resource. It also shows the breadth and depth of the mural scene here to have them all visible in one place. Just seeing the 72 murals on one page is powerful. One of our associates said she had an emotional reaction to seeing the website for the first time.How can people interact with and use the website?It’s super easy and intuitive. All murals are shown as thumbnails on the home page. Clicking each mural takes you to a full info page with a mural description, artist bio, locator map and sponsor of the mural. You can also go to the “Map” page if you’re just hanging out and wondering what murals are nearby, or want to plan a route to view several. You can also search the site by artist or title.What do you hope the website can do for Albuquerque locals? How about for out-of-towners?I feel that Albuquerque suffers from low self-esteem! I love it here and think it is an amazing, unique city. We want to remind locals how cool we are! We want to build local pride. For visitors, the website provides something to do for an extra day in town, and gives a sense of our arts and culture scene.
Art Magnified: Murosabq
Browse Local Mural Art In Your Browser
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