Midtown murals offer empowerment, opportunity
Aug. 19, 2025
By Bailey Doucet
HOUSTON – Beneath the overpass at Spur 527 and Milam Street, a once-forgotten stretch of concrete has been transformed into a vibrant public gallery with a new mural, marking the beginning of a larger effort to enhance intersections throughout the city.
The Midtown Management District and the City of Houston recently approached TxDOT with an opportunity to collaborate on projects that use public art as a tool for healing, empowerment and economic opportunity.
The project is part of HueMan: Shelter, a citywide initiative funded by a $1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. The project aims to challenge traditional narratives around homelessness and activate public spaces through art.
“TxDOT often partners with local governments, management districts and community organizations on implementing and maintaining public art improvements on public rights of way,” said Ethan Beeson, TxDOT landscape architect. “These improvements allow for the communities to express their uniqueness in the spaces where local streets and urban highways interconnect.”
Over the next two years, six large-scale installations — including murals, digital media and photography — will be created in highly visible locations across Houston, many of them near roads, underpasses and transit stops.
“Public art can educate, empower and employ,” said Cynthia Alvarado, director of cultural arts and entertainment at the Midtown Management District. “HueMan: Shelter embodies all three.”
At the Spur 527 site, in the Midtown area of Houston, local artist Marlon Hall and architect Peter Merwin have collaborated with an UpRise Enterprise Cohort to bring the mural to life — not only as a work of art, but as a symbol of transformation.
The piece was developed with input from Houstonians who have experienced homelessness. It’s maintained with the help of those currently enrolled in the Career and Recovery Resources' (CRR) UpRise Enterprise program.
UpRise Enterprise is a paid workforce training initiative that provides unhoused participants with hands-on experience in project management, site preparation and long-term maintenance — all while connecting them to housing and employment support services.
“UpRise Enterprise is about meeting people where they are and helping them take the next steps — whether that’s learning new skills, earning income, or gaining the confidence to lead,” said Nkechi Agwuenu, CEO of Career and Recovery Resources, Inc. “Our participants are stepping into a unique experience to be collaborators, leaders and creators of this city’s future.”
Beyond employment, the mural and others like it are transforming how people move through and perceive urban infrastructure. Sites like I-45 at Pierce and Milam streets, and bus shelters across Midtown, will soon feature immersive visual storytelling, adding beauty and meaning to Houston’s everyday commuting spaces.
“Each HueMan: Shelter installation centers lived experience as both subject and source,” said Alvarado. “By involving the unhoused in both the design and execution, we’re transforming not only public spaces, but public narratives.”
The Spur 527 mural is just the first of many artworks that will bring new energy to Houston’s roads and transit corridors.
Learn more about HueMan: Shelter.
