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Talent Launches New Phase of Gateway Murals with Community Collaboration & Public Art Installation

  • info052075
  • Sep 1, 2025
  • 2 min read

Updated: Sep 5, 2025


Our Stories Through Art (OSTA), a community-driven initiative celebrating local voices and culture, is launching the next chapter of the Gateway Murals with a powerful new collaboration: the Talent Strong Community Murals Project.


This effort will restore the original Gateway Murals, created in the aftermath of the 2020 Almeda Fire, and design permanent metal frames to display them publicly in downtown Talent. The murals, which reflect the lived experiences of fire survivors and residents from Talent and Phoenix, have become symbols of resilience, healing, and hope.

“The Gateway Murals are a testament to the community’s strength, healing, and hope,” said Darby Ayers-Flood, Executive Director of the Talent Business Alliance. “They wouldn’t be possible without the TURA board’s vision to welcome fire survivors at the Gateway site. We are deeply grateful to the partners who made these murals possible—Talent Maker City as project lead, the Talent Public Art Committee, and the 2021 Urban Renewal Agency Board.”

OSTA was founded by the Talent Business Alliance and includes the following partners: the Talent Historical Society, Talent Public Arts Committee, Coalición Fortaleza, and Talent Maker City. Together, the coalition aims to elevate community stories through accessible, community-created public art.


In early 2024, these organizations came together to launch a three-year plan to create a Talent Art Tour - an interpretive walking tour connecting existing and future public art pieces across Talent. The tour will spotlight diverse narratives from the city’s past and present, including Latinx and Native American stories that have historically been left out of public spaces.


As the first major milestone in this effort, Talent Maker City will lead the mural restoration process, hosting free community workshops open to the public on the following dates:

  • Monday, September 8

  • Tuesday, September 9

  • Thursday, September 11

  • All workshops run from 9-11 am. Register here!


Following restoration, the murals will be safely stored by the City of Talent while the next phase of designing and fabricating metal frames gets underway. These new structures will allow the murals to be permanently displayed in a new public location downtown.

“The Gateway Murals have been a symbol of hope, community support, and resilience for the areas impacted by the fire,” added Nina Gerona, Development Coordinator at Talent Maker City. “Even years after the fire, they stand as an important reminder of the strength of our valley and how people came together after the disaster to support one another.”

Once complete, the mural installation will be gifted to the City of Talent as a permanent piece of public art to enrich the city’s cultural landscape and offer a lasting tribute to the community’s journey through loss, healing, and renewal.


This project is generously supported by the Our Stories Through Art Coalition with funding from the Oregon Community Foundation, the Talent Urban Renewal Agency, and Oregon State University.


Learn More & Get Involved!

 
 
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