ABSTRACT
Murals, as a form of public art, serve multiple purposes including neighbourhood beautification, community and youth engagement, and tourism and economic development. Murals involved youth and organizations that aimed to address the problems facing their neighbourhoods and the city as a whole by using art as a way to stimulate community economic development. This chapter examines how murals have fostered community economic development, including tangible economic benefits from tourism as well as intangible benefits such as political empowerment. It also shifts to Detroit and to the examination of two community-based public murals which serve multiple purposes, including: to reflect the attitudes and heritage of their Detroit neighbourhoods; to heal the past (and present) of racial injustice in the city; and to spur community economic development through tourism, entrepreneurship and neighbourhood beautification. The Detroit Chinatown mural thus arose from community economic development concerns and from the desire for healing the legacy of racism.
