Buncombe County seeks public vote on Pack Memorial Library mural design

The walls of Pack Memorial Library are set to become one of downtown Asheville’s largest public art projects, and Buncombe County is asking residents to choose which version of the county’s story will be painted there. County staff narrowed the field to three designs, each built around local plants, animals, the Blue Ridge Mountains and the French Broad River.

The project will cover more than 3,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor mural space at the main library for Buncombe County Public Libraries, a building that also houses the system’s administrative offices, support staff and technical services operations. The outdoor mural is planned to wrap around the library and include a collage of local imagery, making the final design a highly visible marker of what Asheville wants to place at the center of its civic landscape.

Public voting is open through Friday, May 1, 2026, both online and in person at Pack Memorial Library. The three mockups, labeled A, B and C in the voting materials, feature imagery that includes children reading, owls, bears, a salamander, a woodpecker, ginkgo leaves, people reading and flowers. The project materials say the broader Paint NC initiative aims to honor North Carolina’s people, places and overlooked histories through large-scale murals, and Buncombe County’s vote will determine how that goal is translated onto a downtown library wall.

The mural project is budgeted at $37,600 and will be funded through the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund under the American Rescue Plan Act. County officials say it also advances the Buncombe County Helene Recovery Plan, linking the artwork to a broader effort to rebuild community confidence and civic identity after a difficult year. Paint NC, led by North Carolina artist Max Dowdle, is a statewide push to create 100 murals in 100 counties, with partners including Larry Wheeler, the North Carolina Museum of Art, NC Main Street and the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners.

Work on the mural is scheduled to begin the week of May 11, 2026. County officials say community members will also be invited to help paint sections of the mural, with no experience required. Volunteer work will include base coating, color fills and some detail work under Dowdle’s guidance, with all materials provided and participation offered on a first-come, first-served basis.