Murals for Super Bowl LIII highlight Atlanta's civil rights legacy

November 12,2018

As Atlanta readies for Super Bowl LIII, and the one million sports fans who will visit downtown, a new public art initiative is launching to shine a spotlight on the city’s rich civil rights legacy.

Atlanta arts group WonderRoot has partnered with the Atlanta Super Bowl Host Committee to install 30 murals around downtown for the Big Game that speak to the city’s social justice issues past and present.

The first eight mural designs for the program called “Off the Wall" were released to Atlanta Business Chronicle on Nov. 12.

“With the eyes of the world on Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII, we want to embrace our city’s rich civil rights heritage and bring people together to celebrate the unique diversity of our city in a lasting way,” said Brett Daniels, chief operating officer of the Super Bowl Host Committee.

The murals were inspired by 43 community conversations that took place over several months with organizations such as Covenant House, Georgia Equality and the Latino Community Fund.

“We started asking the question: How will the stories of the communities be told during the Super Bowl?” said Chris Appleton, executive director at WonderRoot. “We started pulling on that thread: Atlanta’s legacy relationship to the civil rights movement. We had a desire to shine a spotlight on Atlanta as a beacon for hope and change.”

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