Anyone traveling east to west on Kingston’s Broadway may notice two murals hanging on either side of a freight rail overpass.

There’s a definite desire to support the arts, and this is a very public way to do it," says Raleigh Green, the organizer for Kingston's Art Bridge project. "It takes an eyesore and turns it into an attractive artistic inflection point.”

This is the second year of the Art Bridge and it’s gaining in popularity, with a steady trickle of artists moving upstate for cheaper space to live and work. A panel of four local artists serve as judges and whittle 130 entries down to two winners, which will hang on either side of the railway.

This round the murals offer up a panoramic view of the Ashokan reservoir on east Broadway and the four lighthouses of the mid-Hudson on west Broadway.

(Jenna Flanagan)

Once the final pieces are chosen, they’re customized for the outdoor display.

“Those pieces are then photographed in a super high resolution," says Green, "and then blown up as you see them now to be 90 feet long by nine feet high on a digital mesh and then installed.”

The Art Bridge project installation hangs over the Broadway overpass from the weekend of Kingston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade through to Labor Day. Then the artwork goes through another metamorphosis. They will be carved up and made into tote bags by a women’s homeless shelter in New York City," said Green, "and auctioned off with proceeds going to the women’s homeless shelter and future Art Bridge Projects.”

(Jenna Flanagan)

Kingston’s Art Bridge project is supported by local businesses and the city.