Beautify helps American Express bring cultural capital to Clarksdale, Mississippi
- Sergio Cuculiza
- Aug 18, 2016
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 31, 2021
AmEx commissions a mural tied to its campaign to help local students learn financial management basics.
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Mural by Ruben Rojas in Clarksdale, Mississippi for American Express
Clarksdale was once known as the Gem of the Delta, a center for culture and economy at the beginning of the 20th century. As times changed, so did Clarksdale. Once a thriving urban district, many of its buildings were neglected, with barren and abandoned walls. Yetsoul of the town and community are still strong.
Enter American Express, with a program to teach financial management basics to local students. As part of the program, Amex sponsored a mural designed to capture the aspirations of the community. Clarksdale is the home of the Delta Blues. Upon entering town you'll hear blues music wafting into the streets. Classic clubs like Ground Zero Blues Club and Reds have music every night, and draw tourists from every corner of the planet.
Beautify CEO Evan Meyer says this is why he founded Beautify, the for-profit technology startup spun out of Beautify Earth's original non-profit work. "Our online platform removes the friction from the process, making it easy for brands like Amex to find and work with professional street artists," Evan says. "As both a muralist and a software product manager, I founded Beautify to connect people who want great art with the professional artists who create it."
Beautify Earth stepped into Clarksdale early May to install a single mural across from the Ground Zero Blues Club. What happened was far beyond what we could have hoped for. The community came out and shared their dreams with us. They sang from their hearts. They showed us what art can do to bring people together.
CRI coordinator Katrina Zavalney explained the mural's value: “It’s more than just art on a wall. It’s about how the murals can increase community vitality, which really goes along with our mission, and they have a whole economic development report that shows how when you beautify spaces, it increases property value, people will be more likely to shop at local businesses, it increases awareness of the different projects, organizations and increases activity in those areas. I wanted to do a mural with CCAC is because we can communicate the mission of this place through a huge mural on the side of the build-ing, which comes out of a community engagement process.”
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Clarksdale’s a good example of how “place” is more than buildings — the blues scene is basically a living soundtrack, so a mural that taps into that pride makes sense. I do hope there’s a plan for keeping momentum after the initial splash, because towns get left with the paint but not the program. Slight tangent: I was browsing https://stylelooklab.com for style ideas and it hit me how much visual cues shape how people feel walking into a space, whether it’s an outfit or a street corner.
Public art feels like one of the few “marketing” efforts that can genuinely give something back if it’s done with the community instead of at them. The photos of the wall made me wonder how much of the concepting was driven by local stories vs. a campaign brief. Funny enough, I was messing with visuals on https://imgg.ai last week and it reminded me how different a real wall is from anything on a screen, especially at that scale.
The part about “removing friction” between brands and artists is real — these projects can die in the logistics even when everyone’s intentions are good. It’d be nice to see follow-ups on maintenance too, since murals take a beating from weather and time. Side note, I saw this site while browsing other tools and directories, and it made me think about how many layers there are between “idea” and “something visible on a wall.”
I like the focus on financial literacy here because it’s one of those skills that actually sticks with kids beyond a single event. Also, I’m always wondering how schools coordinate these programs when partners are remote — I literally just had to convert 9am est to cst for a call with someone in the Midwest. Would be interesting to hear if Clarksdale teachers saw measurable changes after the lessons.
Clarksdale’s blues identity makes the mural angle feel less like “decor” and more like reinforcing what’s already there, especially if it pulls people toward the blocks that were left empty for years. Random aside: the whole idea of drawing people in with something simple and visual reminded me of how I kill time with https://blockblast.co between meetings. Curious if the program kept any local input ongoing after the painting was done.