Publicly Supported, Not Publicly Owned: Why Murals Are Muralestate

By Michelle Loughery

Murals aren’t “just paint on a wall.” They’re Muralestate—place-anchored cultural property that holds stories, shapes how people navigate a neighbourhood, and quietly powers local economies. Even when public funds help present them, murals (and the oral-history narratives fixed within them) are not public-domain content. They’re protected artistic + literary works that require stewardship, consent, and licensing.

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What is Muralestate?

Muralestate describes murals as ownable cultural property with three layers that live together:

1. Artistic Work — the visual painting.
2. Literary Work — the curated oral-history narrative embedded in the design, sequencing, captions, and text.
3. Place Value — the bond to a specific street, school, business district, or trail that turns a wall into a community landmark.

Think of a mural more like a heritage home than a poster: it belongs somewhere, to someone, and it needs maintenance, consent, and respect.

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“Publicly Supported” ≠ “Publicly Owned”

Public investment brings responsibility, not a free-for-all. Funding helps the public see the work; it does not transfer ownership or grant open-ended reuse rights.

• Using mural images or lifting the narrative text into websites, grants, signage, policy docs, tourism materials, or AI datasets requires written permission.
• The oral-history narrative is a literary work. Quoting, paraphrasing, or data-mining it without a license is misuse.
• Respecting moral rights matters: correct attribution and no unapproved alterations or removals.

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Murals as Infrastructure (P3 logic, plain-speak)

Murals quietly do infrastructure jobs:

• Wayfinding & safety: They make places legible—people orient, gather, and feel safer where stories live on the walls.
• Education: Public curriculum in plain sight—youth and Elders’ knowledge, local history, language, heritage.
• Economy & tourism: Foot traffic, dwell time, small-business lift, authentic destination identity.
• Climate-wise value: Low-carbon, high-impact cultural infrastructure.

In a P3 (public–private–people) model, murals should be scoped, financed, operated, and maintained like other civic assets—with IP guardrails:

• Public partner: Outcomes, permitting, standards, O&M budget, respect for IP/moral rights, consent protocols.
• Private partner: Capital and maintenance funding, delivery to spec, restoration reserve.
• People partner (artist + community): Owns the IP, curates the oral-history narrative, sets protocols (consent, integrity), signs off on changes.

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Oral Histories: Not “Content”—Community Knowledge

Many murals, including mine, fix curated oral histories gathered from youth and Elders—stories about injustice, survival, and belonging. These are living narratives, not stock assets. Stewardship means:

• Consent first (appropriate to youth/Elders and the new purpose).
• Context intact (no paraphrasing that changes meaning).
• Do-no-harm (trauma-informed review before release).
• Reciprocity (honoraria, youth programs, restoration funds).
• No AI/dataset reuse unless specifically licensed.

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Governance: A Simple Stewardship Protocol

1. Inventory
   List every place the mural, its captions, or my name appears (web pages, signage, tours, datasets, grant files).
2. Pause
   Suspend further use until consent pathways are confirmed with the artist and the community whose stories are in the work.
3. License
   Define scope, term, territory, attribution, integrity protections, “no text extraction,” no AI clauses, restoration duties, fees, and remedies.
4. Maintain
   Budget for cleaning, conservation, and repair—under artist direction where integrity is affected.
5. Audit & Correct
   Annual “use inventory” and a clear takedown/correction path if something slips.

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FAQs

Didn’t taxpayers fund this—why can’t we reuse it?
Public support funds access, not ownership. Reuse needs a written license to protect storytellers, the artist’s moral rights, and the public body from risk.

We took our own photo—can we quote the story text?
Not without permission. The oral-history narrative is a literary work fixed in the mural.

What if we need to move or alter a mural?
Treat it like heritage. Use a change-order process with the artist, consent checks for narrative integrity, and restoration/compensation spelled out.

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Why This Is Personal

My murals carry intergenerational memory—including my own family’s Ukrainian-Canadian internment history. Treating those narratives as free content risks repeating the very erasures the work exists to prevent. Muralestate is my way of saying these walls have owners, obligations, and a living deed to community stories. Handle with care.

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A Civic Call to Action

• Replace “public art = public domain” with “publicly supported, responsibly licensed.”
• Adopt a Cultural Asset Protocol (consent, context, credit, conservation, community benefit).
• Include mural O&M and restoration reserves in capital planning.
• Center artists and storytellers at the table—from design to maintenance to reuse approvals.

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Publicly supported, not publicly owned. These murals fix protected oral histories (artistic + literary works). Use only with consent + license.