Franklin County, Local Artists Celebrate Community Through Courthouse Murals

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. – Franklin County’s court facility improvement project is one step closer to completion with the installation of two county-themed, community-led murals inside the Franklin County Judicial Center. The murals are the result of a unique partnership between the county and The Council for the Arts that utilized the talents of local artists to bring a sense of community inside the new judicial facility at 14 N. Main St., Chambersburg.

“These murals offer a great visual representation of the spirit of Franklin County and will highlight the very best of our communities to all who enter the Judicial Center for decades to come,” said Franklin County Commissioner Chairman Dave Keller. “Both of these larger-than-life pieces also showcase the extraordinary talents of Franklin County’s art community. We are grateful to The Council for the Arts and all of those individuals who lent their time and talents to create such meaningful works of art.”

Initially, The Council for the Arts approached county leadership with a proposal to provide artwork for the halls and offices of the Judicial Center. Since then the project grew both in size and scope into a community art project to create two two-story murals that depict the essence of Franklin County.

The largest mural, located in the atrium, measures 24 feet tall and 12 feet wide. Its design features a rendering of the county’s iconic courthouse superimposed on a map of Franklin County with each township and borough distinctly identified. A skyline silhouette of prominent structures located in municipalities throughout Franklin County, repeated in three sizes across the bottom of the mural, resembles the flames that burned the courthouse in 1864. Completing the piece is a repetitive circular crosshair design inspired by stonework, believed to be remnants from the torched courthouse, that were uncovered by construction crews during the most recent courthouse renovations.

A second mural hangs in the facility’s self-help center (a resource area for self-represented litigants) and measures 22 feet tall and 6.5 feet wide. Each of the mural’s five panels has a distinct theme, but together they form one cohesive design that tells the story of Franklin County’s history, culture, agriculture, and industrial and manufacturing heritage. The scenes depicted on the panels were created from a series of photographs, drawings and paintings provided by local artists and members of the Franklin County Photography Club.

Dozens of artists and photographers from across Franklin County contributed to the project, which took 27 months to complete from its initial conception in February 2021 through the murals’ installation in June.

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