Muralists in Action Highlights Process as Part of Project Atrium Series
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, a part of Arts UNF at the University of North Florida, is pleased to announce its upcoming Project Atrium installation Muralists in Action, led by local artists Shaun Thurston and Dustin Harewood. Conceived as an accompaniment to Jax Contemporary: MOCA Jacksonville Arts Triennial, the collaborative installation will showcase Jacksonville's vibrant muralist scene. The exhibition will feature a transformation of the museum's Atrium Gallery into a vibrant, colorful mural by the two veterans, alongside a group of emerging artists. The installation is on view September 22, 2025, to February 15, 2026. Visitors are encouraged to witness the progression of the work in real time as it unfolds during the first four weeks of its installation. The artists will be working on it weekly, Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. As part of the museum’s lobby, Project Atrium is accessible to the community at no charge during regular museum hours.
The final mural will be completed ahead of MOCA’s Fall Arts Celebration on October 18, 2025. The community-focused event will celebrate the completion of the new mural, as well as our vibrant local arts community that has contributed to the museum’s inaugural Jax Contemporary. The juried exhibition highlights the exceptional talent of local artists. The entire community is invited to attend for free as the museum celebrates new exhibitions and announces the awards for the triennial juried exhibition. The brunch-style opening will feature live music, light bites, and a cash bar.
Project Atrium: Muralists in Action was made possible through the generous support of Project Atrium Sponsor Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow, PLLC and Exhibition Underwriter Florida State College at Jacksonville.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Muralists in Action is a new and engaging installation designed to transform the MOCA’s Atrium Gallery into a breathtaking 40-foot-tall mural spanning the Atrium walls. The exhibition is meant to highlight the local mural scene, which has grown significantly over the past two decades in both the range of artists actively creating and the total number of public murals on display.
Harewood and Thurston have both contributed to the development of Jacksonville’s vibrant mural scene and continue to do so as they share their experience and expertise with the next generation. With an eye on the future of local mural creation, the two veteran artists will lead a group of local apprentice muralists in the creation of the final work of art. The collaborative final installation is more than a mural—it’s a living process, unfolding over weeks in full view of museum visitors, and the process is not only on display to the public—it is a main element of the exhibition.
“We have both benefited greatly from the inspiration we received from artists that came before us, and we are honored if we’re able to do this for artists who are coming up with us. We see ourselves as another link in the chain. We live by inspiration, whether from other artists, or by our life experiences and the world around us,” said artists Shaun Thurston and Dustin Harewood.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Artists Dustin Harewood and Shaun Thurston currently reside in Jacksonville, Florida, having both spent years developing their artistic practices and refining their skills. Between them, Thurston and Harewood bring decades of experience, experimentation, and community engagement to the project. Both have created murals in and out of Jacksonville; with Thurston’s on view in various cities in the United States and Harewood’s spanning countries, including the U.S., Barbados, and Japan. Likewise, for both artists, their relationship to the natural world is at the core of their studio practices, showing up in themes that examine the beauty of natural cycles like destruction and creation, detritus and decay.
Born and raised in New York City, Dustin Harewood became a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum at seven years old. In his teenage years, Harewood lived in Barbados before returning to the United States as an adult. Having earned his bachelor’s degree at North Carolina Central University and his master’s degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Harewood patiently built his artistic skills through diligent practice.
In 2012, Dustin Harewood was approached to support the Springfield neighborhood beautification project, in which he began to create a series of Dying Reef murals inspired by Hokusai’s famous series: 36 Views of Mount Fuji. His first mural was followed by another in the Barbados village where his mother was raised. He created two more in the same Springfield, one in the city of Aomori in North Japan, a three-story mural at the PGA headquarters in Ponte Vedra, one at Beaches Baptist Medical Center, and another four in Barbados. Harewood’s work is rooted in identity, the environment, and, as someone who has spent his life traveling between the places he has called ‘home’, with the ways your location informs your identity.
“When I work, I think a lot about myself and my relationship with the environment,” Harewood states. “More specifically black people’s relationship with nature. What it once was, versus what it is now in a post-colonial context.”
Jacksonville native Shaun Thurston began his artistic journey at a young age and with a deep commitment to mastering a craft often dismissed as play. “The idea of having to spend a lifetime to become great at this form of creation was with me from the beginning,” he says. Thurston attended Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Florida School of the Arts, and Savannah College of Art and Design. He attributes his initial style of street art to his education and local graffiti.
“We got crumbs of graffiti back then in Jacksonville from a writer named One67 who was so prolific that he inspired an entire ‘graff’ crew to emerge from the fabric of local punks, skaters, and hip-hop kids,” Thurston says. “I became part of that crew but was also learning about the entire world of art and art history in school. Those two fields overlapped, and my street art came from it.” Thurston’s 20-year career is defined by his dynamic blend of fine art and public murals. His practice has evolved through constant reinvention, shifting styles and materials to avoid feeling trapped, stifled, or easily recognized. “It’s been my saving grace and self-destruction in one move,” he reflects. Now, with a stronger sense of self, he embraces recognition and consistency.
Both artists have been engaged with MOCA Jacksonville for many years. Both are featured in Jax Contemporary: MOCA Jacksonville Arts Triennial, which is on display through November 9, 2025. Harewood had led classes and programs at the museum. For Thurston, this will be the second time he has created a mural on the monumental canvas of MOCA’s Atrium.
RELATED PROGRAMS
FALL ARTS CELEBRATION
Saturday, October 18, 2025
12 - 2 p.m. | Free
Meet the Project Atrium: Muralists in Action artists, celebrate the announcement of the Jax Contemporary Arts Triennial Awards, and view Sebastian Vallejo: Where The Wild Zephyrs Sleep with the artist. This brunch-style opening will feature live music, light bites, and a cash bar.
MEDIA PORTAL
To schedule interviews, request additional content, or schedule a photo shoot as the installation progresses, please reach out to Amber Sesnick, Director of Communications for MOCA Jacksonville at amber.sesnick@unf.edu or 904-303-0703.
Press release and images of the artist’s past work are available at the link below for use.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/4a8dx54h736tddx6dfsyu/AIgAP2KXhBNRtGi3XBHaCb4?rlkey=j6dmqswf574zzh12p6mdbrbg4&st=b7pci91j&dl=0
ABOUT MOCA JACKSONVILLE
The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2024, as the oldest art museum in the region and the second contemporary art museum to be established in the United States. This celebration year is an opportunity for MOCA to give back to the community that has been its home for a century by presenting groundbreaking exhibitions and programs that will engage the community and elevate Jacksonville as a regional destination for arts and culture.
One hundred years ago, a group of visionary local women artists came together to imagine the kind of city they wanted Jacksonville to be — the kind of community they wanted to live in and be a part of. At the core of their vision for a rich, vital, dynamic city were art, culture, and education. Thus, what we now call MOCA Jacksonville was born — first as a series of exhibitions by artists of the day, used as a fundraising tool to support public school education; then as a guild; and later as an art museum and educational leader.
A century later, MOCA’s mission remains focused on the art, artists, and ideas of our time, with a vision that unites education, creativity, and community building in the heart of downtown Jacksonville. Throughout 2024, MOCA will celebrate its centennial year — looking to the past to recognize the legacy of the visionary leaders and important milestones that have brought us to this point; marking this moment with extraordinary exhibitions and programs that will not only elevate MOCA, but provide a stimulus and create an energized destination for our Downtown to build upon; and imagine the future that we want for our great city, nourishing our community through art and culture for the next 100 years.
For more information including hours of operation, admission prices and upcoming exhibitions and programs, call 904.366.6911 or visit mocajacksonville.unf.edu.
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