BLACK LIVES MATTER STREET MURAL CENSUS

Team: Stephen Larrick (project lead, data research) (United States); Kim Albrecht (design) (Germany); Locations: Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States; Years: 2020–present

Soon after witnessing the rapid spread of Black Lives Matter murals across the United States—with an aim to create a public archive of this historical movement—an open civic data advocate posted an online spreadsheet for people to document the murals. The database is open to crowdsourced submissions and currently contains more than 200 works from big urban to small rural communities. The archive tracks key information for each artwork, including dates and locations of installation, links to photos and media stories, the mural’s message, and the artists and organizers involved. The data visualization illustrates the ways this powerful declaration spread virally and how events intersect.

Image: Black Lives Matter Street Mural Visualization, 2021–22; Courtesy of Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, with metaLAB (at) Harvard & FU Berlin