Hartford Art Tour
Hartford
Jan. 3, 2026
The Hartford Art Tour is a collaboration between the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the city. Art aficionados can download the app and find directions and information about public works of art all over the city. I decided to give it a try to find some of the many murals in my neighborhood, and I decided to walk the entire route to get those steps in. Three miles, one hour. Let’s go!
The first mural I checked out actually isn’t listed on the Art Tour app, but I pass it everyday as it’s literally next door. Artist Corey Pane managed to capture the spirit of the blues – it’s a joyful celebration of what makes us human, especially the pain – and show the sharing of that spirit between generations. Hartford is one of the most musically eclectic and important cities in the country; it’s important to have that fact reflected in our public art.
The next mural was also only a few hundred feet away from my apartment, towering over Bacon’s Antiques near the corner of Maple and Franklin Avenues. Titled Breathe, Follow the Sun, the mural is the largest vertical artwork I saw, and one of the largest in the city. Artist Michael Rice’s artwork is nearly photorealistic in its detail. The juxtaposition of color, particularly the white blazer over black shirt and the pastel color against the woman’s dark skin, makes for a striking welcome as you enter the southernmost part of the city.
The easy part of my art journey was over. To reach the next mural, I trekked across the frozen tundra of the South Green neighborhood to get to Colt Park on Wethersfield Avenue. (Tead: I walked on some sidewalks that weren’t shoveled very well.).Corey Pane’s second mural on this trip is titled Attack Problems, Not People, which is good advice in general. The explosive colors of the flowers around the perimeter of the work almost distracted me from the similarly colorful hands reaching into the center of the mural, removing weeds to allow the rose in the center to blossom. It was another great example of extremes, this time the imagery of summer in full bloom standing atop a snow-crusted field.
Finally, I made my way back across Wethersfield Avenue to the Barry Square neighborhood down Maple Avenue to see another massive work by Michael Rice, titled A Community United. Rice is a master of expansive artwork, representing the different people who call the area home on the side of a Bravo supermarket.
Some people might look at this work and say, “So what, they painted the side of a building.” But I think that we’re looking at our version of the epic artwork that we celebrate from centuries ago. Sure, they could have painted the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling one color, but they didn’t. Similarly, these epic pieces are representative of the people in their communities, the artists themselves and the values of our society. It’s difficult to say what will stand the test of time, but should these murals survive, then we will be presenting the very best version of ourselves to the future.
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