Vibe District Virginia Beach

Public Art Projects - ViBe Mural Festival, VB Street Art Festival, Sidewalk Mini Murals, Large-scale Wall Murals, Creative Crosswalks, temporary Fence Murals and other artist lead activities occur throughout the year within the district. Since 2018 the nonprofit has hosted the annual Mural Festival to add 10 Murals in 10 Days to exterior building walls around the district. This continues to be the organizationss largest event, now celebrating seven years. ViBe Creative District began painting creative crosswalks in 2016. This program also continues to this day completing six in 2024. Working with local artists and the City of Virginia Beach, locations for the creative crosswalks are determined within the Arts District boundaries. Open calls to artists for designs take place in advance of free and open to the public painting events where the chosen artists lead the public in creation of artwork on the street Temporary Fence Murals line over 500 linear feet within the ViBes 18th Street Parklet, as well as the new Mediteranean Ave Parklet & Butterfly Garden. When completed the project will feature 100 plywood murals that will rotate on a 1-2 year basis to afford opportunities for local students and artists to create new work Artists-led activities from mosaic planters to nature walks offer exciting ways for the public to meet working artists and engage in the creative process. In 2024, the ViBe nonprofit added the VB Street Art Festival to promote painting our 15 neighborhood identifer Sculptures lining the streets of the district.

Artists Stipends Supporting local, working artists is critical to the success of the ViBe Creative District and is an important part of our arts advocacy efforts. From significant stipends for large wall murals, small stipends for participation in 1-2 hour events to materials reimbursements for new artworks, created for the District and large-scale projects warranting significant stipends, the nonprofit actively fundraised on behalf of the artist community in order to pay artists for their time and talents. Paid artists stipends were critical to our creative community in 2021 during the pandemic when many local artists went without jobs. In 2022, Singer Songwriter Saturdays diversified our artist roster to increase the number of performing artists that included original music in their own sets. In 2023, ViBe partnered with the CIty of Virginia Beach to feature 22 artists works on the back of Convention Center with way-finding signage via digital art wraps.