Join Us for a Celebration of Artful Inlets: A Community Tour with City Leaders and Artists

The public is invited to join mural artists and representatives from the City of Norman — including city staff and elected officials — for a walkthrough of the latest round of Artful Inlets storm drain murals that will be installed in three north Norman parks this Thursday, April 11 and Friday, April 12.

Celebration of Artful Inlets: A Community Tour with City Leaders and Artists takes place at 5 p.m. Monday, April 15 at Vineyard Park, 3111 Woodcrest Creek Drive.

This year we will be adding six new murals. They are located in Vineyard Park (3111 Woodcrest Drive), Sequoyah Trail Park (410 Sequoya Trail), and Chisholm’s Cattle Trail Park (2515 Wyandotte Way).

This year’s selected artists include: Ruth Borum Loveland, Reb No Fun, Katie Graham, Asha Chidambaram, Deanna Wong and Sophie Miller.

This in the sixth round of Artful Inlets, in which Norman Arts Council and the City of Norman have invited artists to submit designs that transform city storm infrastructure into works of public art. These artful inlets will educate and raise awareness that pollutants that go down storm drains have a devasting impact on our local water quality.

The City of Norman operates and maintains a series of underground pipes, open channels, ditches, and roadways used to collect or convey stormwater runoff from our homes and businesses to the nearest body of water, such as a creek, stream, or lake. In urban areas, stormwater runoff from hard surfaces, like roofs and driveways, flows along the side of the road until it reaches a storm drain, which is an opening or grate in the curb connected by pipes to the nearest waterbody.  

Water and other materials that enter these storm drains are transported directly to our creeks and streams without any treatment.  Some of the pollutants that enter our local creeks and streams with stormwater runoff include grass clippings, oil, trash, fertilizers, pesticides, and pet waste.

This will make a total of 25 Artful Inlets murals across Norman, including locations in Downtown Norman, Lions Park, Colonial Estates Park and these three north Norman parks.

This year’s theme focuses on the City of Norman’s Blue Neighborhood initiative. A 'blue' neighborhood embraces practices that conserve water, protect water quality, improve soil health, and provide vital habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. The City of Norman's Blue Neighborhoods Program is a new neighborhood initiative to improve water quality in the Lake Thunderbird watershed by providing incentives to encourage water conservation, improve soil health, and provide wildlife habitat. More information can be found here: bit.ly/BlueNeighborhoods

In support of this initiative, all designs for this round of Artful Inlets were directed to include the tag line: Think Blue, Act Green!