Colorful Public Art Coming to Joe’s Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier

Joe’s Movement Emporium is getting a lot more colorful.

Located at 3309 Bunker Hill Rd. in Mount Rainier, the nonprofit arts center is now home to a giant mural by Northwestern High alum Rafael Rodriguez Molina, who also painted the mural on the side of the Aldi in West Hyattsville.

Painted along an entire wall of the building, the mural depicts young people jumping in a stylized landscape featuring giant daisies, orchids and a hummingbird.

As Molina finishes up his work, the arts group Chalk Riot has just started a second piece of public art: a giant street mural on Bunker Hill Road inspired by student chalk drawings.

Called “Solstice Glow,” the mural of native flowers is a permanent installation that is going over a temporary street mural made in June. At the same time, more native plantings are being made at Joe’s Movement.

“Street murals don’t just celebrate local culture and brighten our neighborhoods — they also slow down traffic and create safer crossings for students and community members,” the city of Mount Rainier noted in a survey about the mural.

Over the summer, the U.S. Department of Transportation told states to remove art from streets, arguing it was unsafe, but research shows that so-called “asphalt art” can lead to a 50 percent reduction in crashesinvolving pedestrians.

The city of Bladensburg went ahead with a street mural of its own, while Hyattsville has painted several pieces of “asphalt art” in recent years to slow traffic on Gallatin Street.