Here’s the thing about public art in a city like Walnut Creek — it either works or it doesn’t. We’ve all seen murals that felt like they were designed by committee, or sculptures that made you wonder if the shipping crate was the actual art. These four don’t have that problem.
Steve Anderson’s "Junglelaya" covers the south-facing parking lot wall at 1419 N. Broadway. It’s dense, layered, the kind of piece that rewards a second look — the sort of thing you notice more details in each time you walk past. Zoe Adiah Boston’s "A Step Off The Path" sits at 1372 N. Main Street, tucked away enough that finding it feels like discovering something meant just for you.
Around the corner in the breezeway at 1419 N. Broadway, Joey Rose and Alexandra Underwood’s "Creek Dwellers" spreads across two walls — a nod to the city’s namesake that leans into the natural landscape that was here long before the retail showed up. And on the north-facing lot wall, Tsui Xiao Rui and Elliot Trent Thompson’s "Confluence" rounds out the set, a piece that, as the name suggests, brings multiple threads together.
The program that made this possible has its own interesting backstory. Walnut Creek launched the Mural Grant Program in 2023 as a matching grant — the city would chip in if artists and property owners put up their share. That model, while well-intentioned, didn’t exactly produce a flood of applications. So the city retooled it into a direct grant: artists apply, get funded, and paint. No fundraising required. Four murals in one summer is the result. That’s not nothing.
Walnut Creek has been in the public art business since 1982, formalizing things in 2000 with a master plan and dedicated ordinances. The program is now run by Bedford Gallery and the city’s Arts + Recreation Department, with oversight from the Walnut Creek Arts Commission. In other words, these murals didn’t just appear — there’s a whole apparatus behind them, and the updated grant model suggests the city wants to see a lot more where these came from.
And look, not every public art project lands. But these four — from what you can see from the street — feel like they belong. They’re not corporate. They’re not trying too hard. They’re just good work by working artists, in a part of downtown that could use the energy.
If you can’t make it tonight, the murals aren’t going anywhere. Next time you’re downtown, walk past the Zebra Tattoo building on North Broadway. Take the long way through town. See what the city’s been up to while you were waiting in line at Starbucks.
