Community Paint Day: Mural Project at the Festival Center
Category: Event Calendar
Date and Time
- Sunday, Jul 12, 2026 2pm - 5pm
Location
Festival Center
1640 Columbia Rd NW
Details
The Festival Center will hold a community paint day as apart of a new public art project on Sunday, July 12, 2026, from 2:00–5:00 p.m. at 1640 Columbia Road NW, where community members will have the chance to participate directly in the installation of Adams Morgan’s newest mural.
The Festival Center has partnered with DC-based multidisciplinary artist and organizer Shani Shih to create an exterior mural on the building. The project will highlight the intergenerational communities, movements, organizers, residents, and cultural workers who have helped shape Adams Morgan, while honoring the powerful connection between art, culture, and community power.
Over the past year, Shih has been in conversation with communities and organizations connected to The Festival Center, along with longtime Adams Morgan organizers, residents, and cultural workers. The resulting design will reflect the neighborhood’s deep history of creativity, resistance, belonging, and collective care.
“This mural is a celebration of the people and movements that have made Adams Morgan such a vital and vibrant community,” said Sharon Groves of The Festival Center. “For more than 30 years, The Festival Center has been a home for activists, artists, people of faith and no faith, seekers, and mission-driven groups. This project gives us a new way to honor that legacy on the outside of the building, where the whole neighborhood can see it.”
The mural project will unfold over two months and culminates in an unveiling on Sunday, September 13, 2026, during Adams Morgan Day. Community members are invited to attend the kick-off event, learn more about the mural, meet the artist, and take part in the launch of this neighborhood-centered public art project.
Shani Shih’s work is deeply influenced by graffiti and Hip-Hop culture, and explores lived experience, displacement, and the social systems that shape everyday life. Her public art practice draws from her background as a tenant organizer and centers working-class community voices in places impacted by displacement and rapid change. Shih is also the co-founder of the 411 Collective, founder of Chinatown Art Studio, and founder of the Save Chinatown Solidarity Network.
The project is supported by the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities.
Event Details
What: Mural Project Community Paint Day
When: Sunday, July 12, 2026, 2:00–5:00 p.m.
Where: The Festival Center, 1640 Columbia Road NW, Washington, DC 20009
Cost: Free RSVP available; optional donations accepted
RSVP: https://secure.givelively.org/event/the-festival-center/mural-project-kick-off
About The Festival Center
For over 30 years, The Festival Center has served as a hub for activists, artists, people of faith and no faith, seekers, and mission-driven groups. Located in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC, The Festival Center is home to organizations and leaders working for justice, offering co-working space, event rentals, a community art gallery, a chapel, and a vibrant community for people and movements committed to social change.
About Shani Shih
Shani Shih is a DC-based multidisciplinary artist working in murals, street art, illustration, and multimedia painting. Her work explores lived experience, social systems, displacement, and community power. In 2016, she co-founded the 411 Collective, a street art and graffiti collective that empowers frontline communities through public art and direct art action. She later founded Chinatown Art Studio and the Save Chinatown Solidarity Network, continuing her work at the intersection of art, organizing, and anti-displacement efforts.
