Salem, MA
Salem's mural scene is as bewitching as its reputation. The Essex Street pedestrian corridor and Derby Wharf waterfront carry works that grapple honestly with the city's 1692 witch trial history, celebrate its maritime golden age, and reflect the diverse community that calls Salem home today. October brings the visitors; the murals stay year-round and tell a more complicated story.
Featured Artists
All artists →Margaret Holst
Salem-based artist and descendant of a 1692 accused family whose life's work is the honest visual reckoning with that history. "The Accused" — twenty-five portrait panels installed along the Essex Street pedestrian mall on the 328th anniversary of the trials — gives names and faces back to those history reduced to a cautionary tale.
Thomas Revere
North Shore marine painter whose Derby Wharf mural traces the silhouettes of Salem's nineteenth-century merchant fleet against the same harbor skyline they once crowded. Revere spent three years in the Peabody Essex Museum archives researching the ships before touching a brush to the wall.
Yuki Hasegawa
Japanese-American artist and Salem resident whose work focuses on the living community rather than the historical spectacle. "Salem Renewed" features portraits of thirty current residents — drawn from interviews conducted over six months in multiple languages — centering the city's present diversity against its often monolithic tourist image.