Art lovers, don’t sleep on Charlotte. While the Queen City may be best known for its big banks, fast cars, and blooming magnolias, the boom town is also a hotbed of artistic creativity. Vibrant murals have forever transformed otherwise ordinary spaces, high-tech interactive sculptures and installations spark wonder throughout the city, festivals fill the streets multiple times a year, and curated walks take you on guided tours of some of the city’s top artistic corridors. Simply put, Charlotte is full of incredible art experiences—you just have to know where to look. Get started with these 9 stops.

This Charlotte parking garage plays music when you touch it—and sometimes when you don’t.
This Charlotte parking garage plays music when you touch it—and sometimes when you don’t. | Joshua Komer

AURAL ART

1. Musical Parking Garage

Just outside the east-facing doors of the buzzy Market at 7th Street, pedestrians get an eye-and-earful of color and sound as they stroll the Uptown streets. Created in 1998 by artist and jazz musician Christopher Janney, the Musical Parking Garage was designed to encourage passersby to be more spontaneous with the architecture around them. The work consists of roughly 400 colorful panels, including 30-foot tall “light fins” that illuminate and play melodies when touched. Witnesses say the panels occasionally perform unperturbed, leading some to attest to a ghost within. The artful installation also offers a riddle. Find the clue on a plaque on the light-rail side of the building. Solve it, and the deck lights up in a special song.

Metalmorphosis, a giant, moving head made from metal is worth a look at Whitehall Corporate Center.
Metalmorphosis, a giant, moving head made from metal is worth a look at Whitehall Corporate Center. | Joshua Komer

METAL HEAD

2. David Černý’s Metalmorphosis

At Charlotte’s Whitehall Corporate Center, Czech artist David Černý’s Metalmorphosis glistens in the sun. This whimsical work is made of 40 steel pieces, strategically placed along seven segments that rotate 360 degrees. When perfectly aligned, the sculpture forms a massive metal head and spouts out water from the pool below. While the metal man may not be for everyone, the business park where he resides takes great pride in it, calling the sculpture “One of the Seven Wonders of Charlotte.” Not only does the metal man have its own Instagram account, it serves as a community meeting place for group yoga, food trucks, and more. While at the complex, check out installations by other Czech artists, Václav Bláha and Pavel Kraus.

Stop and think: Poetry-inspired murals can be found all across Charlotte.
Stop and think: Poetry-inspired murals can be found all across Charlotte. | Joshua Komer

POETRY TO THE PEOPLE

3. Wall Poems of Charlotte

Wall Poems of Charlotte combines visual art with the written word. Found all throughout the city, on the sides of car rental shops, art studios, restaurants, and more, Wall Poems are murals made of poetic musings. Featured walls include works by one of North Carolina’s most well-known writers, Carl Sandburg, plus Pulitzer Prize-winning poets David Justice and Morri Creech. Co-founded by local poet and artist Amy Bagwell and Ireland-based muralist Graham Carew, the project was designed to bring poetry out of books and into the streets. Start Uptown at 516 North College Street with Dan Albergotti’s “Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale,” painted by Carew, then go discover the other 10 murals all throughout the city.

A ring of nearly a hundred fiberglass mushrooms make for a fun photo op in South End.
A ring of nearly a hundred fiberglass mushrooms make for a fun photo op in South End. | Joshua Komer

FANTASTIC FUNGI

4. Fairy Ring Light

A ring of fiberglass mushrooms in all shapes and sizes light up the ground in Charlotte’s South End neighborhood. Commissioned by the owners of Atherton Mill, a popular shopping and culinary complex housed in a historic textile mill, Fairy Ring Light, created by artist Meredith Connelly, was intended to submerge passersby into an otherworldly environment. In this case, a low-to-the-ground, illuminated fairyland. Connelly designed the work after real-life phenomenon, also known as pixie rings or elf circles, when a variety of mushrooms spontaneously form an arc, usually in a forested area. Fawn over the funghi, and then head to one of South End’s many nearby restaurants, breweries, or music venues.

Follow a trail by ArtWalks CLT and discover frescoes, murals, sculptures, and even a painted house, throughout Charlotte.
Follow a trail by ArtWalks CLT and discover frescoes, murals, sculptures, and even a painted house, throughout Charlotte. | Joshua Komer

WALKS OF ART

5. ArtWalks CLT

Get your steps in while you uncover some of Charlotte’s most impressive works of art. Founded by Anne Wise Low, a local art teacher, ArtWalks CLT offers curated trails accompanied by digital maps that highlight the Queen City’s vibrant and surprising pockets of art. Wander through Uptown, South End, North Davidson (locals call it NoDa), and beyond, making stops at impressive, large-scale murals, frescoes, interactive sculptures, private residences, and even transformed trash cans. Made especially for art lovers with low or no vision, the Art Is For Everyone walk includes detailed audio descriptions. ArtWalks CLT also hosts group tours, community events, and workshops on topics like the intersection of street art and identity.

Visit the McColl Center to witness local and international artists at work, such as artist Jen Clay and intern Dru Swan creating art in the studio.
Visit the McColl Center to witness local and international artists at work, such as artist Jen Clay and intern Dru Swan creating art in the studio. | Joshua Komer

FROM ASHES TO ART

6. McColl Center

The McColl Center is a thriving hotspot for artistic activity in Charlotte. The center itself is an architectural work of art, reconstructed out of the ashes of a burned-down stone church. In the 1990s, then-CEO of Bank of America, Hugh McColl, could see the destruction from his corporate tower office and decided to change it. Twenty-five years later, the multi-level artmaking space includes subsidized artist studios, cutting-edge equipment, and gallery space where artists can showcase and sell their work. Artists in residence have hailed from Brazil, Poland, and Mexico, and all across the United States. The center also hosts summer youth camps, community family days, and other art-related events and workshops throughout the year.

Charlotte’s annual SHOUT! festival features hundreds of arts and culture experiences.
Charlotte’s annual SHOUT! festival features hundreds of arts and culture experiences. | Courtesy of Charlotte Center City Partners

CITYWIDE SHOWCASE

7. Charlotte SHOUT!

Each spring, a diverse and wonderful world of art, culture, and ideas infiltrates the streets of Charlotte for the SHOUT! festival. The multi-week event (April 4–20, 2025) features over 200 cultural opportunities intended to ignite inspiration and create community, including several mini-festivals within the festival, like the Carolina BBQ Festival and Ideas Festival. Spotlighting everything from classical music ensembles, a cappella groups, and ballet, to trombone shout bands, big-idea keynotes, live painting, ARTcade games, food trucks, and more, SHOUT! transforms Uptown into an immersive showcase of the city’s vibrant arts and culture scene.

Pop-up art installations are just one part of Charlotte’s massive annual International Arts Festival.
Pop-up art installations are just one part of Charlotte’s massive annual International Arts Festival. | Courtesy of Blumenthal Arts

GLOBAL WONDERS

8. Charlotte International Arts Festival

Fall ushers in the annual Charlotte International Arts Festival. Over the course of a couple of weeks, the festival brings together the rich and diverse international culture found in Charlotte with outside troupes, artists, musicians, and more. Modeled after Edinburgh’s popular Festival Fringe, CIAF is intended to spark creativity and curiosity about the city’s large multicultural community. Hosted in two main areas, Uptown and the south side’s Ballantyne, over 250 events include performances by the Charlotte Symphony, African drum bands, Latin dance workshops, an entire mini-festival dedicated to Indian culture, immersive art installations, and more. Past favorites have included the Netherlands-based Birdmen, enormous, illuminated birds that roam the streets.

Incredible, colorful murals have transformed this once-dark alleyway in Uptown Charlotte.
Incredible, colorful murals have transformed this once-dark alleyway in Uptown Charlotte. | Courtesy of Charlotte Center City Partners

LIGHT UP THE DARK

9. Luminous Lane

A dark alleyway in Uptown Charlotte is now a vibrant celebration of art. Luminous Lane is the dazzling product of 27 artists who participated in a “spray jam” with the goal of bringing light to dark places. Born out of a past Charlotte SHOUT! festival, dozens of inspiring, uplifting, unusual, and atmospheric murals by both local and globally known artists fill the sides of parking decks and buildings. ArtWalks CLT has also dedicated two of its popular art-focused walking trails to each side of the lane.

WRITTEN BY VIRGINIA BROWN