Graffiti News

Residents chose what the mural would say

Twenty-nine seniors helped determine the content of ‘Seen,’ a new mural unveiled at Albany Avenue and the Atlantic City Boardwalk on September 18, 2026. According to the Press of Atlantic City, the work is the city’s first public mural designed and painted by seniors. Its subject and its makers belong to the same community, making authorship central to understanding the finished image.

Create 48 AC, Mosaic and Atlantic City Senior Services brought the participants together for a six-week workshop led by artists Sue Daly and Glenn Taylor. Daly presented an initial, simple concept, but the group rejected it. Participants instead listed the activities they enjoyed and what the senior program offered them. Daly assembled those ideas into the final design, and the seniors painted the work themselves.

That sequence matters when looking at a community mural. The residents helped set the visual agenda before putting paint on the surface. Their involvement gives viewers a way to read the mural as a collective account of everyday life, with the artists helping bring the group’s choices into a shared composition.

Portraits and painted bricks carry different stories

The mural combines images of shared activities with individual expressions of memory and belief. The newspaper reports that arts classes, fitness sessions, cultural outings and creative workshops informed its imagery. Owen Gordon and Diana Love, the king and queen of that year’s Senior Services Pageant, appear holding their trophies. These identifiable people place the senior community within the Boardwalk’s public imagery.

Daly used a mosaic-style approach and combined high-gloss and flat paints to produce a shimmering effect. She explained that the tree at the center represents growth: remaining active, developing friendships and continuing to learn. Those ideas connect the mural’s design to the programs and relationships that brought its painters together.

Along the bottom, participants painted individual bricks with subjects of their own choosing. One recalled the Steel Pier diving horse. Other contributions included a message of hope, a favorite Bible verse, rainbows and sunshine. For someone examining the work, these smaller areas offer a second scale of attention after the overall composition. They preserve distinct voices within a project made by a group.

The unveiling became a place to exchange memories

The gathering beside ‘Seen’ also generated conversations about Atlantic City’s past. The Press of Atlantic City describes one woman recalling her family connection to Morris ‘Moe’ Oliver, who started Moe’s Chick’n in the 1970s. Taylor remembered painting signage for the business. The exchange illustrates how a public artwork can become a setting in which local knowledge passes between people.

Zach Katzen, founder and executive director of Create 48, told the newspaper that the project challenged assumptions of seniors as frail and emphasized their contribution to city life. He wanted passersby to recognize grandparents, friends and neighbors in the mural. That aim places recognition at the center of the work: the people pictured are part of the city’s identity.

Taylor brought a long history of local painting to the workshop. He has painted signs, lettering and murals since 1967; the newspaper names ‘I’ve Gotta Be Me’ and ‘Jazz Legends’ among his Atlantic City works. At ‘Seen,’ that experience supported a large group of makers. Taylor said the mural had to be divided into sections so all 29 participants could paint simultaneously.

Albany Avenue is the reference point for a visit

The meeting of Albany Avenue and the Boardwalk is the location to use when seeking out ‘Seen.’ Start with the portraits and central tree, then look along the lower edge for the individually painted bricks. That progression connects the group’s shared image with the personal choices embedded in it.

For people who follow murals and public art, the project offers a concrete example of residents shaping their own representation. Knowing how its design developed adds another layer to viewing the surface: the activities, faces and small painted details were selected through participation. The work invites attention to both artistic composition and the community decisions behind it.

Explore nearby murals on the Wallscape map.

Source: Press of Atlantic City