More murals will be going up to accompany the ones that are already a part of the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area Mural Project.

The Black Lives Matter mural is the newest to be painted along the Main Street corridor in Niagara Falls.  

Dozens of cars pass the mural, along with the others it sits next to, highlighting social justice issues and stories of the community.  

“Shed some light on the stories that happened here in the Highland Community of Niagara Falls throughout time, through the Underground Railroad, all the way up to today,” said Ally Spongr, project director.

Spongr says the mural is a part of the mural arts project, funded by the New York State Health Foundation that was started in 2019 to paint the whole corridor across from the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center.  

“It’s like an outdoor art gallery space in a lot of ways and it’s a different way to share history. A way that people can engage with the murals, the content, artistic design, and style and connect with them in their own ways, just by walking by,” Spongr said.

These murals all went up last summer — and now Spongr says they are aiming to add eight more murals by the end of the summer. They are calling for artists to apply to paint them with help from the community.  

“Kind of leaving that up to our community to help us decide with the artists and what their vision is. Through our process, we combine community ideas and artistic vision to come up with what you see here in the murals. We hope more social justice themes come out of this. We focus on the heritage and history here but history is happening right now," Spongr added.

She says there are spaces available for murals of all sizes. By next summer, they plan to add six to seven additional murals — and have every space of concrete along the wall covered.  

“We want artists in the community to tell stories of social justice and talk about the issues we face as a community here,” said Spongr.

People can apply through an online application until Friday.