Graffiti News

Landmarks from Bay City, Michigan are painted on a wall in Ansbach, Germany. The Michigan news outlet MLive reported on 4 August 2026 that the two cities marked 65 years of sister-city partnership with a ceremony in Ansbach in July 2026, and that the mural was dedicated there.

The mural dedication was part of a formal ceremony

According to MLive, Bay City officials and students travelled to Ansbach in July. The ceremony combined speeches, music and the dedication of the mural.

Bay City Commissioner Laura Kubit, who was among those who made the trip, told MLive: "It was a formal ceremony. All of their commissioners were there. Their mayor was there." She added that students played the national anthems of the United States and Germany, and called it "an amazing program".

One wall holds three sister cities

The structure of the mural is the interesting part. MLive reports that it features a panel for each of Ansbach's three sister cities: Bay City, plus cities in France and Italy.

The Bay City panel shows landmarks from the city. Local artists and German students designed the artwork together, and students visiting from Michigan added the finishing touches during the ceremony.

According to MLive, Bay City Central graduate Thomas Paul painted hearts symbolising the sister-city relationship and lines for the United States flag, while Lily Lupowski worked on the France flag portion. Both stayed with host families about 30 minutes outside Ansbach.

"What I got out of it was just meeting new people, meeting friendly faces," Paul told MLive. "While I was there, I met probably 20 people that I'm still keeping contact with about half of them."

The partnership nearly ended once

The two cities were linked in March 1961 through President Dwight Eisenhower's people-to-people program. MLive reports that the United States Information Agency created the program after the Second World War to improve relations with other countries at community level, and that according to The Bay City Times archives, Bay City was one of four Michigan cities initially linked with it.

It has not run smoothly throughout. MLive reports that tensions nearly ended the partnership around its 55th anniversary, after Ansbach's Culture and Tourism Secretary called Bay City a "quiet" partner in the city's local newspaper.

Chelsea Anderson, one of the trip participants, told MLive: "When they said, 'Bay City's a silent partner,' Walter Hagen and Monty Oswald from the local German club went over there and said, 'We want to still be partners.'"

This was the third student exchange since Bay City Public Schools and Ansbach schools rejuvenated the relationship in 2019. In the years since, community partnerships also produced the "Two Cities Connected" sculpture in Uptown Bay City, made of a split globe joined by a large metal arch.

A matching mural is coming to Bay City

The mural does not run in one direction only. MLive reports that a mural representing Ansbach will be painted on the concessions building by the Wenonah Park pavilion in Bay City, to match the one created in Germany.

That reciprocity has precedent. According to MLive, Ansbach named a pedestrian bridge over a freeway the "Bay City Bridge" in 2022, as part of a delayed 60th anniversary celebration.

Why cities keep reaching for a wall

This is where the story stops being about two towns. There are plenty of ways to mark a sister-city anniversary: a plaque, a sculpture, a tree, a joint statement. What sat at the centre of this ceremony was a wall.

A mural does things a plaque cannot. Several people can work on it at once. It can be shown to a crowd while still unfinished. And who painted which part survives as a story. The fact that Thomas Paul filled in hearts and the lines of the American flag, and Lily Lupowski the French flag, means the wall is both a finished picture and a list of everyone who was there.

It is also the opposite of anonymous street work in almost every respect. It had a design, permissions and a schedule, and it was completed in front of a mayor and a council. The visual language is shared; the conditions of making are reversed. Cities pulling the look of graffiti into official ceremonies is happening in a lot of places at once, and this wall is one instance of it.

German students arrive in Bay City on 12 September

According to MLive, Ansbach returns the visit on 12 September, when German exchange students arrive for a two-week stay with Bay City host families. A public celebration is planned for 13 September at the Wenonah Park pavilion, featuring an American-style barbecue.

The exchange is supported by Bay City Public Schools, the German-American club DANK, Saginaw Valley State University and the Bay Area Career Center. MLive reports that students fundraised for two years through trivia nights, silent auctions, German dinners and karaoke events.

Susan Elder, German teacher for Bay City Public Schools and lead teacher on the exchange, told MLive: "Two weeks seems like such a short time, but they do, they build family. They will be back and forth with their partners several times in their lifetime. And it all started with this exchange."

If you see either wall — in Ansbach now or in Bay City once the matching mural is painted — a photograph and a location on the Wallscape map keeps a record of it. The feed shows how murals in other cities are being documented.

Original report: MLive, "This Michigan city is represented by a mural in a small German town. Here's the story behind it." (4 August 2026)