Four murals are being painted in Chicopee in an effort to revitalize the downtown.

"I just think that its nice to be able to add color and to bring some more life into the center,” said Christina Bryden, one of the artist working on the murals. 

Envision our Chicopee: 2040 is a city wide effort working towards a better future. Johnny Miranda is also an artist working on the project and he also serves on the Chicopee Cultural Council.

"Part of that rebranding is the revitalization and beautification of the community,” said Miranda. 

Two of the murals are for the Black Lives Matter Movement and the other two are outside of Cabot Liquors. 

"With these two murals we want to bring history to the community through art,” said Miranda. 

The two murals are side by side and each artist is dedicated to making them come to life. 

"It’s like a snapshot of the city of where it is now and we can only progress from here and grow as a community,” said Bryden. 

Soon Miranda will have the U.S.S. Chicopee, a historic Navy ship, painted on the one wall.

"People can start asking questions and learning things about their history, about Chicopee and start building that Chicopee pride,” said Miranda. 

On the other wall, Bryden is working on capturing her vision of the city where she was born and raised.

"There’s going to be a little bit of Chicopee Center mixed it, city hall, piece of the old library, the bridge everyone crosses to get down,” she said. 

These murals are just one piece of the puzzle towards envisioning where the city will be in 20 years. The cultural council is hopeful for more grants in the future to allow them to paint more murals throughout Chicopee. 

"We want to make this rebranding something big that people can get excited about and work towards a better Chicopee,” said Miranda. He said all four murals are expected to be complete by the end of September but the two outside of Cabot Liquors will likely be done sooner.

There will be an event to march downtown at the end of September which will feature the unveiling of the BLM artwork.