Public Art Highlights

Canvas Mural

Canvas mural, on side of building near downtown Greenville

About the Mural

The Beach Company, a Charleston-based real estate development firm, commissioned a large-scale mural for Canvas Tower, the 130,000-square-foot office building located at 301 College Street, across from Heritage Green. Award-winning Australian visual artist and photographer Guido van Helten’s photorealistic mural on the façade of the eight-story building features longtime Greenville resident and educator, Pearlie Harris. According to van Helten, who visited Greenville and met with a variety of community leaders earlier this year, the mural concept explores connectivity, diversity and unity in Greenville, using the history of integration in education as a unifying symbolic theme. The design references the history of desegregation and integration of schools in Greenville County and suggests themes around the value one teacher can have across many generations.

Canvas Mural 4

Aria

Aria - Sue Simpson 2020 (1)

About the Sculpture

One of Greenville’s most distinctive pieces of public art, Aria, is an abstract painted steel sculpture by artist Michael Neil Jacobsen. In 2020, the sculpture was relocated to the Sue Simpson Garden at 16 Cleveland Street. Additionally, with the artist’s approval, the City hired a local vendor to repaint the sculpture a vibrant sapphire blue. Originally commissioned by the City in 2007, Aria resembles a skein of tumbled ribbon, with S-like shapes that are bent, twisted and formed into curved complex loops. The sculpture’s title is an opera term that refers to an elaborate melody sung by a single voice, usually with instrumental accompaniment.