Downtown Warsaw Cultural District Plan
Launched November 2025
Call For Mural Artist
220 S. Buffalo St.
Main Street Warsaw is working with the property of 220 S. Buffalo St., Warsaw, IN to invite artists to design and submit original mural concepts for the southwall of the building. Main Street Warsaw has provided a Façade Improvement Grant to pay up to 50% of the cost of the project. The mural subject matter and design should encourage visitation to downtown Warsaw and enhance it as cultural destination. In addition, the mural should attract people to view the art and elicit interaction like becoming part of the art by taking their picture in front of it or other means. Artists can find the necessary submission forms below.
Artwork must be submitted as directed by August 30th, 2026 to Terry Sweeney at tsweeney@kchamber.com.
What's Happening Now?
Main Street Warsaw and Warsaw Public Arts Commission announce the selection of artwork submitted by local artist Amani Roadriguez and Lia Geiger that will be installed on two downtown utility boxes on the north side of Center St. between Indiana and Buffalo streets.
“This initial installation of artwork is the first opportunity for the Warsaw Public Arts Commission and Main Street Warsaw to share the effort of selecting artwork to display downtown. The call to artists resulted in a wide variety of artworks to choose from and we were excited to see the range of artists’ ages and styles in the submissions. The selected artworks, both from Warsaw-based artists, are eye-catching and colorful. We hope that the public reception will encourage and support more artwork to be displayed in our community, ” said Warsaw Public Arts Commission Co-Chair Andrea Miller.
These two artists’ works were exactly what we had hoped for, striking, vibrant colors and positive messages. The artworks provide some whimsey and will welcome our residents and visitors downtown,” said Nathan Underneath Main Street Warsaw Board Member who participated on the selection committee.
The utility box murals are funded by Main Street Warsaw and are the first projects to be launched as part of the Downtown Warsaw Cultural Arts District Plan. It was great partnering with the Warsaw Public Arts Commission, and we hope to launch a number of additional cultural art projects identified in the plan later this fall,” said Main Street Warsaw Downtown Development Director Terry Sweeney.
The utility box murals are scheduled to be installed by August 30th, 2026.
Why this plan?
The Downtown Warsaw Cultural Arts District Plan serves as a comprehensive guide for leveraging the city’s cultural assets for sustained economic growth, with the ultimate goal of creating an Indiana Arts Commission-designated Indiana Cultural District. Developed through a multi-phased process of research and community engagement, this plan focuses on transforming downtown Warsaw into a vibrant, well-recognized, and labeled mixed-use cultural center. It features unique, authentic art and a cultural identity that makes the district memorable to visitors, residents, and investors alike.
This document is the necessary next step in a series of strategic efforts. It is built upon a solid foundation of recent, extensive strategic work that has consistently identified arts and culture as essential to Warsaw’s future economic vitality. Key previous planning efforts, including the Downtown Warsaw 2030 Strategic Plan , the Hyett Palma 2023 Downtown Action Agenda , and the Brookings Institute/LISC Critical Corridor Connections Plan , all established a clear mandate for a “vibrant and growing, culturally focused downtown”. These plans specifically called for achieving an official state cultural district designation and solidifying downtown as the city’s “corporate, civic, and cultural center.”
Implementation of this plan is the critical step to leverage these previous efforts and use the arts for economic growth. It provides the detailed strategies for enhancing public spaces and creating the dynamic downtown experience envisioned by the community – a vision that aligns perfectly with the state’s focus on talent attraction as championed by the Indiana READI program. This document provides the needs-based strategies and placemaking recommendations required to make Warsaw a place where creative professionals want to live and work, where businesses want to invest, and where the entire community can experience a richer quality of life.
