Buffalo, NY – The Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s Public Art Initiative recently announced a mid-June start date for a new mural at 1330 Niagara Street by Buffalo-based artist Nicole Cherry (American, born 1987). The building is currently being rehabilitated and will be the future home of a bicycle shop, a theme Cherry has carried into her design. 

Cherry’s artistic practice began in high school when she began painting interior murals for family and friends. She earned her Bachelor’s in Arts from SUNY Buffalo State in 2010. She believes strongly in building community and the role that art has in enhancing quality of life. Her passion for public art and its transformational properties has guided her professional career as she has expanded her mural practice to exterior walls, with notable works in South Buffalo at Undergrounds Coffee House and Roastery and on Elmwood Avenue at Elmwood Pet Supplies. Beyond mural painting, Cherry has been a creative aide at People, Inc. for several years and recently began furthering her education in Health Sciences at Erie Community College.

The collaboration between the museum’s Public Art Initiative and Buffalo Spokes LLC, who will occupy the rehabilitated building at 1330 Niagara Street, was facilitated by Vision Niagara, an organization that strives to create a thriving community that capitalizes on its waterfront location, international significance, rich heritage, and historic architecture. They are residents, businesses, investors, and human services organizations working together to encourage and implement revitalization of the Niagara Street Corridor into a desirable and progressive place to live, work, and play.

“Vision Niagara’s mission is to guide the improvement, livability, and success of the Niagara Street Corridor and its international waterfront,” said Barbara Rowe, President of Vision Niagara. “We are delighted that Nicole Cherry’s mural will be part of that vision and are pleased to have had the opportunity to connect Buffalo Spokes LLC with the Albright-Knox to accomplish this project!”

The Albright-Knox’s Public Art Initiative is an innovative partnership between the museum and the County of Erie established in 2013 to enhance our shared sense of place and cultural identity in the urban and suburban landscapes of Western New York. The City of Buffalo joined the partnership in 2014. The goal of the initiative is to create spaces of dialogue where diverse communities have the ability to socially engage with, actively respond to, and cooperatively produce great public art that is capable of empowering individuals, creating stronger neighborhoods, and establishing Western New York as a critical cultural center.

Other recent Albright-Knox Public Art Initiative projects include Felipe Pantone’s Optichromie—BUF mural on the back of Town Ballroom; Muhammad Zaman’s muralOur Colors Make Us Beautiful at 1131 Broadway; Louise Jones’s mural Wildflowers for Buffalo at 465 Washington Street; Robert Indiana’s NUMBERS ONE through ZEROsculptures at Wilkeson Pointe; White Bicycle’s mural We Are Here at 1260 Hertel Avenue; Chuck Tingley and Matt Grote’s mural weego at 1503 Hertel Avenue; Otecki’s (Wojciech Kołacz) mural Work and Play at 617 Fillmore Avenue; The Freedom Wall, completed by artists John Baker, Julia Bottoms, Chuck Tingley, and Edreys Wajed at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and East Ferry Street; Betsy Casañas’s mural Patria, Será Porque Quisiera Que Vueles, Que Sigue Siendo Tuyo Mi Vuelo (Homeland, Perhaps It Is Because I Wish to See You Fly, That My Flight Continues to Be Yours) at 585 Niagara Street; Keir Johnston and Ernel Martinez’s mural Welcome Wall at 751 Fillmore Avenue; Bunnie Reiss's mural Magic Buffalo at 1322 Hertel Avenue; Shantell Martin’s mural Dance Everyday at 537 East Delavan Avenue; Daniel Galas’s mural 72 Jewett at 74 Jewett Avenue; Amanda Browder’sSpectral Locus installation at three separate locations throughout Buffalo; Alice Mizrachi’s mural Dream Keepers at the Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology; Roberley Bell’s Locus Amoenus installation at the Tifft Nature Preserve; Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn’s mural Noodle in the Northern Lights at Shea’s 710 Theatre; Kaarina Kaikkonen’s installation We Share a Dream at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport; Jenny Kendler’s Milkweed Dispersal Balloons and ReWilding New York (Community Seed Stations), a two-fold work that took place over the summer of 2015; Shayne Dark’s 2015 exhibition Natural Conditions and residency at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens; Jaume Plensa’s Silent Poets at Canalside; Casey Riordan’s Shark Girl at Canalside; Tape Art’s Buffalo Caverns, a massive, temporary mural made with low-adhesive drawing tape on the north wall of the Central Library branch of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library; a billboard- and sticker-based iteration of Matthew Hoffman’s You Are Beautiful project, made possible in part through a partnership with Lamar Advertising; and Charles Clough’s collaboratively produced Hamburg Arena Painting, which is installed at the Hamburg Public Library. The Public Art Initiative has also distributed 30,000 art kits to students throughout Erie County.

The Public Art Initiative was established and is supported by leadership funding from the County of Erie and the City of Buffalo.

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