January 28, 2021, Hope, AR, The Hope Downtown Network (HDN) is excited to announce that the network is one of the recipients of a Division of Arkansas Heritage (DAH) Public Art Grant.  Journey of Hope is a $10,000 mural project with $5,000 coming from DAH and $5,000 in matching funds provided by the Hope Tourism Commission.  

Bob Erwin, president of the Hope Downtown Network stated, “We are thankful to be one of the recipients of the grant funds from the Division of Arkansas Heritage. We also greatly appreciate the Hope Tourism Commission for providing the matching funds for the Journey of Hope Mural Project.  The HDN is looking forward to working with Little Rock artist/muralist, Joel Boyd.”

The Journey of Hope Mural Project will showcase notable aspects of Hope’s history and community.  Subjects highlighted will include Klipsch history & Hope watermelons as well as a design celebrating Southwest Arkansas as a hunter’s paradise.   The selected mural site will be the Hope-Hempstead County Chamber of Commerce building with the mural facing 2nd Street.  This site was selected due to it being a high traffic and high visibility area.

Artist, Joel Boyd stated in his submission, “Each selection highlighted will be framed pictures (paintings) of the same size and style but each will have a different color scheme. An added benefit of having separate pictures with different color schemes and subject matter would be that viewers could pose for pictures in front of the scene they like or relate to the most.”

This program was made possible in part by a grant from the Division of Arkansas Heritage, funded by your 1/8 cent conservation tax, Amendment 75.