With so much mural art throughout Rochester that we ride and walk by daily, we thought it would be fun to take you to a few favorite hidden treasures throughout the city with a lighthearted scavenger hunt.
Want to play? All you have to do is find all seven murals using the clues, take a photo of the full walls, then drop them in a story on Instagram and tag @roccitymag. At the end of the month, we’ll choose a winner at random from the correct tags. But whether you win a prize or not, we hope you enjoy the art while learning a little more about each piece along the way.
1. IYKYK that IRBIR was a wacky alien spokesman in the 1980s for a Chamber of Commerce campaign that played off the acronym that is his name. Now he’s in a little bit of a hideaway on this mural, thanks to Shawn Dunwoody and company. Like Rochester, It’s (Still) Got It.
2. Beware of this beaver crossing with a side of payback courtesy of Onur and Wes21. The pair visited Rochester in 2015 with WALL\THERAPY and added a bit of playful fun across from a space known for its play-filled experiences.
3. Roughly 152 years before Faith47 added a drop of paint to the weathered canvas beneath the elevated railroad tracks, then President-elect Abraham Lincoln’s train stopped nearby enroute to Washington, D.C. It was the early morning hours of February 18, 1861, and his words were brief: “I appear merely to see you, and to let you see me, and to bid you farewell.” He must have needed caffeine, because as CITY editor Leah Stacy will tell you, there are no coffee shops immediately nearby in the High Falls District–so on that train he kept on chugging.
4. Formerly wheat paste adhered to this exterior wall by Dellarious, it has since worn away in the grayness of Rochester winter. Now, all that remains is the outline of Frederick Douglass, surrounded by a campus full of art inspired by him, his life, and his words, crafted by local creators on land that was once home to his family and now serves the community in many new ways.
5. Inherited Traditions has this royalty-like presence of a Queen on King Street, and rightfully so. Painted by Brittany Williams, the mural is inspired by the Quilts of Gee’s Bend, a quilting tradition that dates back as far as the early 1800s when enslaved women in the rural community of Boykin, Alabama began to stitch scraps together as a means of making bed covers for warmth, now celebrated for its beauty and rich history.
6. A bit of Good Luck will lead you to this not-so-little boy. Painted by brothers Saman and Sasan Oskouei (AKA ICY and SOT), whose work focuses on humanitarian topics, is just outside of a space filled with imaginative Rochesterians.
7. Get that cup of coffee Lincoln probably needed the morning he visited Rochester in 1861 when you find this wall by Meagan Spendlove. While getting caffeinated, enjoy the views of this mural in the courtyard it overlooks.
Quajay Donnell is a freelancer contributor to CITY Magazine.