Get to Know Atlanta’s Newest Landmark – The Midtown Art Walk
05/02/2024
Located north of the Midtown MARTA station, the Art Walk is a public plaza and pedestrian promenade that invites discovery for people exploring the district on foot. The corridor serves a variety of people, from MARTA riders to patrons dining at The Consulate restaurant nearby and visitors to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Monetary Museum.
And now, the Art Walk is home to Midtown’s newest photo attraction, the 137-foot-long “Electric Saturation” mural by Baltimore-based artist team Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn, better known in the arts world as “Jessie and Katey”.
For the past 13 years, Jessie and Katey have transformed public spaces across the world into vibrant, playful experiences. Following multiple installations in Atlanta in 2012 and 2023, the duo have returned to paint a 3-sided mural on the north side of the 10th Street MARTA Station in collaboration with Living Walls, Midtown Alliance, and MARTA Artbound–a dazzling focal point of Midtown’s new Art Walk.
Unterhalter and Truhn famously use highly geometric, abstract language to engage with the history, architecture, and culture of a place. Since 2011, they have been consistently creating large-scale, public murals and installations across the world, learning the intricacies of the places they work. For this project, they used their unique visual language to create an energetic composition for the Art Walk, a love letter to the pedestrians who pass through on a daily basis.
“We’re always thinking about how our work interacts with the existing architecture…making sure everything feels seamless, like it was meant to be,” said the artists in a conversation with Living Walls.
Unique Features Add to Immersive Experience
Lush landscaping and stunning art installations raise the space’s visibility as a unique destination within Midtown Atlanta, home to the southeast's largest concentration of arts and cultural venues. Overhead light spheres with color-changing LEDs, and vibrant pavement markings in the 10th Street crosswalk and 11th Street intersection, provide creative wayfinding to lead people through the space.
More to Explore
Near the mural, visitors can enjoy other works including "Lift," the large-scale steel sculpture by Andrew Crawford, and a colorful trio of illuminated swallows from the Italian art collective known as Cracking Art. Midtown Alliance will introduce more art installations and programming to the corridor in 2024-25, incorporating ephemeral works that will rotate periodically and a lineup of monthly community events.
The Latest Successful Station Collaboration Between Midtown Alliance and MARTA
Midtown Alliance and MARTA's Artbound program have teamed up to deliver other public art enhancements at the Midtown and Arts Center Stations over the years, rejuvenating plaza spaces outside the stations and creating a sense of arrival for transit riders. The Art Walk is one of two projects that MARTA and Midtown Alliance are collaborating on this year. The other being a vibrant mural and new stage that will host a variety of programming and events in the plaza at the North Avenue Station starting this summer.
“MARTA Artbound is extremely proud of the work we have been able to accomplish with Midtown Alliance over the past seven years,” said Katherina Dirga, Director of Art in Transit. “Their clear vision and passion for creating inviting urban spaces has helped us immensely towards reaching our goal of enhancing our customers’ experience of transit.”
Free Community Event on May 11 Will Officially Open the Art Walk
The public is invited to attend a free launch party event on Saturday, May 11 from 12-5:30pm to officially open the Art Walk. The outdoor festival will feature an artisan market curated by Georgia Vintage Goods, drinks for purchase from The Consulate, a pop-up chef in collaboration with Punk Foodie, live music performances, and a special interactive sing-a-long led by Toronto-based Choir!Choir!Choir! RSVP for the event at MidtownATL.com/LaunchParty.
RSVP FOR THE MAY 11 FREE COMMUNITY EVENT
Network of Partners Brought the Space to Life
An integral part of the Midtown community's vision from plans first written more than 30 years ago illustrating what this corridor could become, the Art Walk was made possible through partnerships and cooperation from the Midtown Improvement District, the City of Atlanta, MARTA, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, 10 10th, MAA, and Peachtree Walk Condos. Project design and implementation partners included Sylvatica Studio, Astra Group, JWA Project Management, and Living Walls.
Additional phases of the Art Walk have been implemented in segments along Peachtree Walk northward to 14th Street, including the western frontage between 12th and 13th Streets and the stairway and mural on the western edge of the AC/Moxy Hotel. Future phases to connect all the segments together contiguously are currently in the concept and design stages.
