Our Stories Through Art

“Painting the town with stories told and untold”

Thank you for attending!

The Talent Business Alliance recently hosted an Our Stories Through Art (OSTA) community engagement event at Art Bop Beer Co., an evening dedicated to celebrating local public art, and storytelling in conjunction with the quarterly Talent Art Walk.

We extend our sincere appreciation to Art Bop Beer Co. for providing venue space and hospitality for this event. We also thank our raffle prize donors, Talent Maker City and Art Bop, for their generous contributions. Special recognition goes to our dedicated volunteers and event coordinator Amanda for their instrumental work in making this gathering a success.

The OSTA Project continues to advance its mission of elevating Talent's community narratives through public art installations.

Project Updates

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

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 and design permanent metal frames to display them publicly in downtown Talent. The murals reflect the lived experiences of fire survivors and residents from Talent and Phoenix and have become symbols of resilience, healing, and hope.

OSTA was founded by the Talent Business Alliance and includes core partners such as 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 in September, hosting free community workshops open to the public!

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

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.

“Talent Strong” Gateway Murals Restoration & Public Art Project

OSTA is launching the “Talent Strong” Community Murals Project to restore and permanently display the Gateway Murals that are currently located on the fence along Highway 99 at the Talent Gateway site.

Talent Maker City has worked to reseal the Gateway Murals and they will now be safely stored by the City of Talent until they can be installed in their forever home! The final art installation will include interactive community workshops where residents and artists will co-create sculptural metal frames to showcase the murals downtown in a new location permanently. This initiative invites the whole community to participate in a creative process that will honor Talent’s past, and help shape its future.

Coming soon - NEW Murals on Talent Historical Museum

The OSTA Coalition has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a public mural project in Talent, Oregon.

The theme, “Ecological Narratives: Biodiversity and Belonging” celebrates the evolving relationships between people, wildlife, and the land we share. Artists are encouraged to creatively reflect Talent’s rich natural history and present-day environmental identity through their work.

Key dates are outlined below:

Submission Deadline: September 28, 2025
Semi-finalist Meetings: September 29 - October 10, 2025
Finalist Notification: October 24, 2025
Project Completion Deadline: TBD

Questions? Contact us at talentostaart@gmail.com.

OSTA RFP (eng)

OSTA RFP (esp)

Our Stories through Art Project Partners

OSTA is a collaborative project to use art as a tool for storytelling, education, community connection, and creative placemaking.