5 Instagrammable Murals in Charlottesville, VA

      I'm not sure if it's because I am a blogger and always looking for cool spots to take photos, or just that I'm a fan of color and street art, but I sure do love a good mural! I've enjoyed finding them in the various places that I've lived over the years: Charlotte NC, Burlington VT, and of course my most recent former home, Charlottesville VA! 

     For a small city, Charlottesville has a really good amount of street art. I enjoyed finding my favorite murals over the past three years, and today I wanted to round them all up for you! If you're visiting Charlottesville, here are the best murals for Instagrammable photos.

     Charlottesville has so much street art that there is actually a whole local organization dedicated to it called Charlottesville Mural Project! Not all of the murals that I selected for this blog post are affiliated with this, but Charlottesville Mural Project is still a great resource to check out, especially to be aware of new murals (as there are new ones that go up fairly frequently)! 

     Here are my personal top five mural picks:

     1. UVA Corner (University Ave) - original blog post here

     These photos were taken back in 2018, and I haven't been back to this mural since as I didn't frequent The Corner area too much while living in Charlottesville. (The Corner is the University of Virginia's own little downtown area, and it's filled with bars and restaurants and other small businesses for students.) I assume though that this mural is still there?! I tried to find evidence of it on Google Maps, but I can't grab an exact address for it. It's right on the side of one of the buildings on University Ave. though! If you park either in the small garage or on the street to explore The Corner, you should be able to walk and find this easily if you take a look down the little side streets. I love the orange and blue colors! 

     2. Charlottesville Sanitary Supply (1327 E. High St.) - original blog post here

     This colorful and large mural is located on the side of a business called Charlottesville Sanitary Supply, which sells chemicals and other supplies for swimming pool and hot tubs. Random right?! The front of the building is totally unassuming, and you'd never guess that such an awesome mural is right on the side of the building! The mural is located right by the parking lot, so it's super easy to get to for snapping pictures. Sometimes on weekdays there are cars or trucks blocking part of it, but on weekends it's generally unobstructed. 

     3. IX Art Park (2nd St. SE) - original posts here and here

     

      IX Art Park is a cool area of Charlottesville that's just a couple blocks from the Downtown Mall. It's filled with some restaurants and a brewery, as well as some other miscellaneous local businesses (including the studios for one of the TV stations, and a church). The coolest part of IX though is the art itself! IX is filled with murals and other street art installations. It's a great place to bring families/kids, and I think it would also make a cool date spot to explore. As of 2021, one of the weekend farmers markets in Charlottesville happens in IX as well! There are too many street art pieces here for me to have gotten photos with all of them, but I did do a few blog shoots at IX during the years I lived in Charlottesville, including a few just a couple months ago. 

     4. Public Fish & Oyster (513 W. Main St.) - original post here

     This is one of the first murals I ever remember driving by when I moved to Charlottesville, and this spring I finally got to take blog photos by it! It's located on the side building of Public Fish & Oyster restaurant. The blue and green colors in it are beautiful, and even more stunning in person. There is a lot of street parking around West Main Street, and there is also a lot right across this mural (it's parking for a specific only during business hours, but on weekends or off-hours you could park there and hop out to take a few mural pictures quickly). 

     5. I Love Charlottesville A Lot - Belmont (408 Monticello Rd) - originals posts here and here

     I saved the most iconic mural of Charlottesville for last! The I Love Charlottesville A Lot mural is found on the side of a tire shop in the historic Belmont neighborhood. Belmont is a small and cute area filled with some really unique local restaurants and charming older homes. The only downside to Belmont is the limited parking can make for a real problem (especially during dinner hours when the restaurants get busy), so I recommend trying to take a picture here in the daytime hours if possible. The Charlottesville Mural Project website has a nice write-up about the history of this one. 

     I've linked my five picks in a Google Map below so you can see visually where they're all located! Please feel free to leave a comment if you've been to Charlottesville (or any of the smaller town nearby) and have a mural or street art recommendation to add. Putting this post together is making me excited already to start finding more murals in my new city of Virginia Beach. 😊

     

   

       God Bless,

     xoxo Annaliese