PARKERSBURG — The City of Parkersburg is receiving a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to continue the Parkersburg Floodwall Mural.

The grant is part of 958 grants being awarded, totaling more than $27.1 million, that were announced as part of its first round of fiscal year 2024 grants, according to a press release from the NEA.

“The NEA is delighted to announce this grant to the City of Parkersburg, which is helping contribute to the strength and well-being of the arts sector and local community,” said National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “We are pleased to be able to support this community and help create an environment where all people have the opportunity to live artful lives.”

The City of Parkersburg has already committed over $50,000 to public art downtown over the past two years, according to the press release.

The Floodwall has recently become a canvas on which the story of the city and the state of West Virginia are told. The 25,000 square feet of mural space is being completed in several phases, and this award will help to cover the costs of artist compensation, paint, and supplies. The project is running with $0 in overhead costs.

Downtown Parkersburg has made strides to bring art and creative additions by featuring multiple selfie stations, a Goodspaces mural, and several organizations focused on bringing quality arts to our community, including the Actors Guild of Parkersburg, The Parkersburg Art Center, and the Arts Collaborative of the Mid-Ohio Valley.

Edward Escandon, a representative from the Floodwall Mural Committee expressed his excitement about the grant, stating that it will roughly triple the amount of work the Committee can complete in 2024 — phase four of the project.

“Our goal for 2024 is to unite the mountain scene with the train bridge scene and add five new works to our collection of inset panels,” he said. “I am overwhelmingly grateful for the hard work and vision that the Mayor and administration has brought to this successful application.”

Point Park, in particular, has seen substantial collaboration and investment, featuring a 400-seat amphitheater, Blennerhassett Island and the recently completed river trail extension, drawing tens of thousands of residents and visitors to the waterfront each year.

The project is being done in partnership between the City of Parkersburg, the Parkersburg Floodwall Mural Committee, Downtown PKB, the Greater Parkersburg Convention & Visitors Bureau, The Parkersburg Art Center and Arts Collaborative of the Mid-Ohio Valley.

Escandon hopes the public sees that they created something that made a virtue out of necessity in doing something with the flood wall.

“Parkersburg believes in beauty and hard work,” he said.