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10.20.15 // Public Art

Modern Day Hieroglyphics

Hampton artist Asa Jackson returned to the district to paint a mural live during the first NEON Festival in 2015, where he was once involved with Hampton Roads, The Canvas Project, which beautified the Zedd’s auction house in the winter of 2010. As a multidisciplinary artist, Jackson’s work explores the cross section of textile from Modern Day Hieroglyphics

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10.17.15 // Public Art

Pilot Art Outside the Box

In 2015, Norfolk newspaper The Virginian-Pilot held a contest for readers to create artwork out of newspaper boxes. The winners’ boxes were on display at the first NEON Festival at the Plot.

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10.16.15 // Public Art

Arrivals and Departures

Local photographer Hen Cho created a wheatpaste graphic image from Norfolk International Airport on a Granby Street façade for the first NEON Festival in 2015. As a reminder for viewers of take offs and landings home, the temporary project lived up to its ephemeral theme of transience and movement between places.

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10.16.15 // Public Art

Out of the Chrysler into the NEON

Out of the Chrysler into the NEON was selected and installed by Old Dominion University professor Manuela Mourão for the first NEON Festival in 2015. The piece was part of the Outings Project, a global art project that brought images out of local museums into the streets. These figures, wheat-pasted on a vacant warehouse in Out of the Chrysler into the NEON

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10.16.15 // Public Art

Octopus Girl

Using techniques inspired by paper and collage artists, Victoria Weiss, aka Butterpop Studio, created an image of a heroine rising from the sea in 2015. The wheatpaste project was located on the rear side of Bob’s Gun Shop’s billboard, generously donated by the owner. After several years of gracefully swimming on the billboard, Octopus Girl Octopus Girl

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10.15.15 // Public Art

New Energy Of Norfolk

As one of the three inaugural NEON Festival mural collaborations, New Energy of Norfolk, was the introduction most visitors had when approaching the burgeoning arts district. Together, two ODU professors created a mural that was a friendly welcome to the neighborhood with Richard Nickel’s playful, smiling houses illuminated by Clay McGlamory’s solar light installations. The New Energy Of Norfolk

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10.15.15 // Public Art

Wild Alley

In 2015, then Chrysler Museum Glass Studio instructor Hannah Kirkpatrick led a student artist team from the Governor’s School for the Arts to create a neon piece inspired by the wilderness in a forgotten alley corner. The hidden neon artwork became the starting point for a years-long effort to beautify three blocks of Magazine Lane. Wild Alley

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10.07.15 // Public Art

With the Current

The mural’s maritime symbols represent ways Norfolk citizens create meaningful homes in what can be a transient city. It was a collaboration between local artists A. Valid and Christopher Revels that lived in Magazine Lane until it was replaced with Navid Rahman’s Jewel in 2018.

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06.10.15 // Public Art

Slappin’ the Base

A tattoo artist in Virginia Beach, Mark also specializes in illustrations for cards, posters, book and magazine covers, and promotional products in a wide variety of genres. His mural, Slappin’ the Base, was one of the first in the NEON District.

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9th Annual
NEON Festival

The 9th annual NEON Festival returned to NFK October 18 & 19, 2024. The nights were lit with performances, music, murals, art and more! Stay tuned for 2025's tenth anniversary celebration!

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Call For Artists

Hundreds of artists have passed through NEON walls over the years. Big or small, international or your next door neighbor, high school student or college professor - artists of all kinds and skill levels are welcome to contribute to the NEON District's public art collection. Apply for project-based open calls throughout the year to join the club.

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