Public Art

The Art in Apex policy casts a vision of how public art can enhance the quality of life for residents and existing public spaces, align with the character of each specific town location, provide context to the setting or to influence the community’s interaction with their surroundings.

Public art should also demonstrate the vibrancy of our community, stimulate creative thinking and enhance our town’s unique culture. Public art in Apex currently includes murals and sculptures. Read the public art policy.

Apex Sculpture Walk

Apex Sculpture Walk

Sculptures are installed in and around downtown Apex in the spring of each year for an annual Sculpture Walk! The walk typically begins in Hunter Street Park and ends near the Hwy 55 intersection on Salem Street.

Learn more about the Apex Sculpture Walk

Are you interested in submitting your work for the 2024-2025 Sculpture Walk? View our call for artists here!

Art in Apex

Blackbird CircleBlackbird Circle by Sally Myers
Located at the John M. Brown Community Center parking lot, 53 Hunter Street

2023 Apex Sculpture Walk People's Choice Award Winner

Blackbird Circle is a joyful celebration. The large uneven circle has decorative spirals, blackbirds landing, and swallows flying. Warm copper flowers grow into the circle. The circle represents the circle of life and the copper poppies remind us of those who have passed. The sculpture challenges you to observe how the sculpture represents the true gestures of the birds by showing black birds landing for just a moment, while the swallows fly in and out.
Community Laughing Garden MuralThe Community Laughing Garden Mural by Loren Pease
Located at the Apex Police Department, 205 Saunders Street

The Community Laughing Garden Mural was created through a collaboration the artist, Apex students, Apex Police Department, Town representatives, and the Apex Public Art Committee. The idea for the mural originated with a group of students who wanted to create a mural in support of the social justice movement.
2020.12.10 Vertical PW Mural (1) edit

Destination Becomes Home by Max Dowdle        
Located on the Apex Public Works Building, 105 Upchurch Street

Destination Becomes Home highlights feelings of home with bold, eye-catching colors that are inspired by the special aspects of Apex. From people, to history, to flora and fauna of nature, and topography itself, Apex has a unique kind of small town allure of its very own. The mural brings home the point that wherever you put down roots becomes a part of you. With dynamic imagery, vivid colors and a calming overall aesthetic, the emotions one experiences reflect when a destination becomes home.


Phil Hathcock - Inky

Inky by Phil Hathcock
Located at the Apex Police Department, 205 Saunders Street

Phil Hathcock’s inspiration for this sculpture stemmed from the desire to honor the Inuit people. Inky is his rendition of an inukshuk. Inukshuks were used by the Inuit people as a cairn for directional uses and to mark hunting and fishing grounds. Inukshuk was the symbol for the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver. This rendition of an inukshuk was created out of colored stones.


Public Art - Town Hall

Trajectory by Dan Kuehl
Located at Town Hall, 73 Hunter Street

Trajectory is made of beams of steel rising toward each other, connecting at the top. As the taller beams meet with the shorter ones, they create angles. The angles follow a spiraling arch trajectory. The open space inside the angles is faced with mirrors, reflecting some space outside, but mostly the space inside. The path through the sculpture becomes an intertwined comingling of lines. Trajectory is about interconnectivity and progression along a curvilinear route.


Ethan Morrow Up Hill Battle

Uphill Battle by Ethan Morrow
Located at Roger Family Skate Plaza, 1250 Ambergate Station

2022 Apex Sculpture Walk People's Choice Award Winner

Uphill Battle was created in collaboration with Hattiesburg Alliance for Public Art and DREAM of Hattiesburg, MS, a teen substance abuse prevention non-profit. The Hattie Hundred is an annual bike race fundraiser for DREAM of Hattiesburg; Uphill Battle was displayed along the route from April 2018 – July 2019. The sculpture depicts a wildly ambitious biker, leading a pack of competitors, to conquer a gnarly, nearly vertical hill. The character’s ambition is synonymous with those impacted by the DREAM of Hattiesburg Program.



Downtown Art Walk (1) Opens in new windowDowntown Art Walk

The Downtown Art Walk is an organized tour of public and private art installations ranging from sculptures to murals! Stop in restaurant and shops along the way to enjoy all that downtown Apex has to offer.

View the Downtown Art Walk stops!