Difference Maker: Shelby Allison streamlines growth in city murals and encourages more artists to do them

Urban art in Spokane has splashed more color across otherwise dingy underpasses and crosswalks.

Much of the credit for the spread of these public paintings in the past couple of years goes to Shelby Allison, according to city leaders. She is the medium behind this mural movement, although she seeks out other artists to create them.

Allison, Spokane Arts’ public arts program director, has combined her knack for organizing with a zeal to find a wider circle of regional creative talent to paint the displays.

“If you’ve ever seen a mural in Spokane on a sidewalk or public wall and thought, ‘Wow, that’s so cool,’ there is a good chance Shelby helped make it happen,” said Elisabeth Hooker, vice president of marketing and programming for Downtown Spokane Partnership.

“Partnering with both public and private organizations, Shelby has left her mark across the city, always approaching her work with kindness, patience and determination.”

Allison, 34, at first took a part-time job with the nonprofit Spokane Arts in January 2023 to launch the nonprofit’s Asphalt Art Program – a hybrid effort with the city’s traffic calming work – to paint large street art in neighborhood crosswalks and intersections.

Her position soon became full time, when she also took over Spokane Arts’ mural program.

“Spokane Arts has been an amazing place to work,” Allison said. “I’m always talking about art. I get to help a lot of people figure out how to navigate their own art careers.

“I know a lot of artists who are super talented, but they don’t necessarily know the administrative part of what they need to do for their personal art work. They don’t know about any of the opportunities available to them in local grants, residencies. I’ve been trying to help more people learn about them.”

After a year of research, she worked with different artists and neighborhoods to complete a current count of 16 asphalt art creations across Spokane.

“The idea is that we put these giant, creative paintings in the road, and it actually slows traffic,” she said.

Additional spaces along the city’s railroad underpasses also now pop with colors. In summer 2024, Allison did much of the cleanup and prep work to add seven new murals that artists finished. She also worked to tidy up existing underpass murals and add a protective coating to all the paintings.

“It was a lot of time downtown in the underpasses,” Allison said. “We do those murals in the underpasses because it kind of livens them up and discourages graffiti, for the most part.

“They are all coated in an anti-graffiti, water-resistant coating. What that does is makes it to where the spray paint won’t properly adhere. I have a power scrubber with soap, and that removes graffiti, so you don’t need chemicals.”

Skyler Oberst, Spokane Arts executive director, praised Allison’s collaborative work in the city.

“When people say we want to make our community more vibrant and colorful and inviting, Shelby’s been quietly doing just that. She’s out year-round, in the snow and the heat, protecting our community’s art and inviting us to think a little bigger and brighter,” Oberst said.

Allison, a visual artist, has an Eastern Washington University fine arts degree in visual communication and design, melding graphic design and fine arts. Raised in Spokane, she started drawing as a child. Dad Jeff Allison is an artist, and a grandfather and great grandfather explored art.

She has created her own murals and window paintings – mainly for businesses as a freelancer. In 2019, she and artist Susan Webber painted a mural along the railway viaduct near Stevens Street.

Even now, she takes a week off in early November for side work, recently painting about 100 holiday window scenes.

She and Webber painted a folky sea creature-mermaid mural for the former Zona Blanca eatery, 157 S. Howard. It’s one of her favorites. When Barrelhouse Pizza took over, the artists replaced a handheld oyster with tomatoes.

In her day job seeking artists to do public projects, Allison said she’s learned that many of them don’t answer emails.

“I’m finding out maybe I’m the only one who does,” she said. So she’ll call, or tag someone in a post.

“With Spokane Arts, I help other people get to do art. I do all the unseen work, a lot of emails, a lot of meetings. I attend a lot of neighborhood councils. They pick an artist for the asphalt art and help come up with a design.”

She also ensures that the permits, city approvals and safety measures are in place for when the artists paint.

“Shelby is equal parts personable and professional,” said Pollyanne Birge, who manages the city of Spokane’s side of the Asphalt Art Program. “She has enviable administrative and artistic skills, and she is a dream to work with.”

Among recent asphalt paintings, Webber created a folksy circle of wildlife at Fiske and Hartson. The Bemiss Neighborhood selected artist Chris Bovey to paint a big oak tree with acorns, a squirrel and musical notes.

In August, Reinaldo Gill Zambrano painted a bird image for the Southgate neighborhood. Zambrano also did a West Central street mural in 2024 depicting an artsy moose.

Allison said she enjoys spending time with different artists at the project sites. Under the artist’s guidance, she’ll help with portions of the asphalt art.

“What I love most about my job is being able to tell people they have these opportunities, and to watch them grow,” she said.

“Then, my favorite thing is eavesdropping, seeing other people’s reactions to the murals, especially near schools and parks. The little kids are so excited.”