Main Street Vero Beach Mural Festival

While progress in Vero Beach can sometimes feel incremental, it’s encouraging to see tangible pieces of DPZ’s 2024 Downtown Master Plan coming to life—from interim streetscape improvements to continued conversations around long-term district management. In November, downtown Vero Beach came alive during the Main Street Vero Beach Mural Festival, an energizing community event produced in partnership with Main Street Vero Beach, the Vero Mural Project, and the Friends of the Vero Beach Art Village.

Over the course of a few days, three new permanent murals were completed—at the Chamber of Commerce building in Pocahontas Park, at the former Fish & Wildlife building now being transformed into a preschool, and in an alley at the south end of downtown. In addition, six commissioned artists created murals on movable 8’ x 8’ panels placed throughout the district, alongside a student mural by a local middle school and a community paint board where anyone could grab a brush and participate. The festival drew a great turnout, and the finished panels will be redistributed around downtown and the Art Village as part of a broader Art in Public Places strategy.

DPZ staff (and Vero Beach residents) Heather and Dylan Wassell helped to organize the event. As board members for the Friends of the Vero Beach Art Village, they are working closely with partners on neighborhood revitalization efforts that use art as a tool for community-building. Events like the mural festival are a rewarding reminder of how planning and design can translate into visible, on-the-ground impact, and it’s been meaningful to stay connected to that work at the neighborhood scale.