The Mural Movement of Clay Center is a community-led public art initiative in Clay Center, Kansas, that has covered the small town with more than 25 large-scale outdoor murals. Organized by a volunteer mural committee drawn from across the community, the movement partners with building owners, donors, and professional artists to turn blank walls into public attractions celebrating small-town American life.

The idea began as a modest Rotary Club project. Brett Hubka, president of GNBank, chose installing a single mural as his annual community project during his Rotary tenure. When a fellow Rotarian suggested the club stay open to putting up more murals, the donations followed and the idea took off. Hubka then assembled a seven-person committee from a cross-section of the community, and the Mural Movement of Clay Center was born. Early artists included William Counter of Chapman and Whitney Kerr III of Kansas City, whose earlier work in Abilene first caught the committee's attention.

What started as one mural snowballed into 15 within about a year, and the collection has kept growing since. Nearly $200,000 in donations poured in to fund new murals and to provide for the upkeep of existing ones. What began with some skepticism from building owners soon reversed: artists and businesses now approach the committee on their own, and donations arrive without solicitation.

The murals have become a genuine tourism draw for a town its founder describes as off the beaten path. Weekend visitors are now a common sight downtown, one business owner counted 60 out-of-town visitors after asking patrons where they came from, and the town's sales tax receipts have broken records. Local businesses have embraced the art as well: the 15-24 Brew House prints a mural on its beer cans. The designs deliberately avoid divisive topics, a choice the organizers credit with uniting the town around the project.

The collection spans patriotic tributes, rural scenes, and community stories. Browse the full Clay Center collection on Kansas Murals, including featured works such as Primordial Passage, Center Of It All, Old Glory, God Bless America, and the Clay Center Zoo Murals. See all Clay Center murals in one place.

Sources: Clay County Travel & Tourism, claycokansas.com/murals; Kansas Living Magazine, "A Mural Movement" by Greg Doering, September 8, 2021, kansaslivingmagazine.com.