The beautiful seaside town of Seward was officially designated, “Mural Capital of Alaska” in 2008 at the completion of the town’s 12th colorful mural. This achievement resulted from the enthusiasm and energy of a group of local artists and art lovers who began volunteering their talents in 1999 to paint the town!

Jennifer Headtke, Seward’s premier muralist, first brought artists together in a group experiment painting panels on the high school gym floor. The group has since grown into a “Society” of devoted muralists and has become the Visual Arts Arm of the non-profit Seward Arts Council.

The Mural Society paints to bring life to Seward’s unique historical characters and events and to celebrate the beauty and spirit of Alaska.

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Walking Tour Points

Com­mis­sioned by the Alas­ka Rail­road, this wel­com­ing mur­al greets tourists as they enter the cruise ship terminal. 

This mur­al is a cel­e­bra­tion of the Alas­ka Rail­road as well as Seward as the Railroad’s south­ern terminus. 

This mur­al was designed in cel­e­bra­tion of the U.S. Nation­al Park Sys­tem’s Cen­ten­ni­al, focus­ing on Seward’s Kenai Fjords Nation­al Park. 

With­out a pri­or design, Wyland col­lab­o­rat­ed with the Seward Mur­al Soci­ety on a 3‑hour, impromp­tu, out­door cre­ativ­i­ty event. Togeth­er they designed and paint­ed this mur­al of Res­ur­rec­tion Bay.

Mur­al by Mike Coro­na, 2006 

This mur­al, the Soci­ety’s largest to date, pays trib­ute to Seward’s own Exit Glac­i­er. The artist has cap­tured the glac­i­er, so its grandeur will nev­er be for­got­ten as it receeds up the valley. 

Six­teen artists came togeth­er to design and paint this col­or­ful patch­work mur­al that cel­e­brates the vibrant Alaskan wildflowers. 

Mur­al by Jus­tine Pechusal, 2009 

This mur­al cel­e­brates Alaska’s State­hood and focus­es on the beau­ty of our state flag, which was designed by Ben­ny Ben­son while he lived in Seward’s Jessie Lee Home. 

Mur­al by Bar­bara LaVallee, 2010 

This project com­mem­o­rates Seward’s famous Mount Marathon foot race that is run each year on the 4th of July. Infor­ma­tion about the race’s con­cep­tion and the list of annu­al win­ners are includ­ed on the Mural. 

Seward is hon­ored in this mur­al as the begin­ning mile­post of the his­toric Idi­tar­od Trail. 

This bright­ly-col­ored mur­al pays homage to the men and women who make their liveli­hood from com­mer­cial fish­ing off our vast coastline. 

This col­or­ful mur­al illus­trates the beau­ty of Alaska’s wildflowers. 

This mur­al was designed as part of Seward’s PARKS play­ground project. 

Avi­a­tion has played an impor­tant role in Alaska’s his­to­ry. This mur­al seeks to rep­re­sent the indi­vid­u­als and numer­ous small air char­ter com­pa­nies that have been part of Alaska’s growth and progress. 

This ren­di­tion of a whim­si­cal 1919 Rock­well Kent draw­ing was paint­ed by 20 local artists. 

This mur­al depicts the Native myth of the super­nat­ur­al Raven cre­at­ing the world. 

This mur­al depicts the revered mytho­log­i­cal crea­ture called Raven.

This scrap­book-style mur­al was the first com­plet­ed project in Seward. It depicts Seward’s 1903 found­ing at the south­ern ter­mi­nus of the Alas­ka Rail­road and includes rep­re­sen­ta­tions of oth­er his­tor­i­cal pho­tos as well.

Mur­al by J. Pechuzal & L. McEl­roy, 2011 

Mur­al by Liza McEl­roy, 2012