Nash Art and Murals Trail

STOP 1: The Imperial Centre

"Babel" by Charles Pilkey, located on the grounds.

Charles Pilkey is a former geologist turned freelance artist, illustrator and writer. He lived in western Japan for 14 years where he taught stone carving classes at Kyushu Sangyo University. His sculptures lie scattered as weeds are scattered in parks, campuses and other public spaces in Japan, Korea, China, Turkey, Italy and in the US. He currently lives in Mint Hill, NC with his wife and four cats.

Learn More: https://www.technozoicdreams.com/

STOP 2: The Imperial Centre

"Blue Flower Morning Glory Whisper Bench" by Jim Gallucci, located on the grounds.

Jim Gallucci has completed over 50 public art commissions. These include works for municipalities, art councils, private collections, corporations, and colleges and universities across the US. He is a graduate of LeMoyne College (BA, English 1973) and Syracuse University (BFA, Art 1974 and MFA, Sculpture 1976), has been a sculptor for over 30 years. He has worked as an art instructor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University of Alabama at Huntsville. He was also an Exhibit Designer for the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro, NC. Presently, Jim works full time designing and fabricating sculpture in his Greensboro studio assisted by his staff.

Learn More: https://www.jimgalluccisculptor.com/

STOP 3: The Imperial Centre

"Gestural Studies" by Kevin Eichner, located on the grounds.

Kevin Eichner pairs industry with nature. In his labored process of cutting, bending and twisting the I-beam he highlights the liveliness of a material. Kevin’s journey started in upstate New York and has taken him through decades of artmaking, teaching, and building community. His sculptures — many made from industrial I-beams — have been featured across the country, from university campuses to public sculpture gardens. He sees potential in the heaviest of materials, coaxing movement, meaning, and even softness out of solid steel.

Learn More: https://eichneratelier.com/home.html

STOP 4: The Imperial Centre

"Sun Hook" by Norman Keller, located on the grounds.

Norman Keller graduated with a BFA and MFA from the University of Georgia, in Athens. Keller is Professor Emeritus at the University of East Carolina’s School of Art, having taught sculpture there for 27 years. He was a founding member of the Tri-State Sculptors E.A., Inc, served as president from 1983-1987 and received the Tri-State Sculptors Lifetime Achievement award in 2016. Keller has been actively exhibiting since 1959 and in 1994 he was a visiting professor for the University of Georgia Studies Abroad Program in Cortona, Italy. His work is found in many corporate and private collections. Keller is currently producing sculpture from his studio in Greenville, NC.

Learn More: https://cbsculpturegarden.com/norman-keller/

STOP 5: The Imperial Centre

"Tamer of Wild Animals" by Richard Herzog, located on the grounds.

Richard Herzog is a three-dimensional artist who creates conceptually driven works in sculpture and installations using steel, plastic, wood and vinyl. He has created outdoor sculptures and installations professionally for more than 20 years. His works have been included in exhibitions throughout the US included New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and internationally in more than 100 group, solo and outdoor exhibitions. For the past few years his focus has been on public art and outdoor sculpture creating works that bring awareness to our surrounding environment using manufactured materials that bridge the gap of man-made and natural. These works have explored a variety of themes some as grand as climate change while others a mundane as storm damage to our forests and everywhere in between.

Learn More: https://www.rickherzog.com/

STOP 6: The Imperial Centre

"Uprooted" by Richard Herzog, located on the grounds.

Richard Herzog is a three-dimensional artist who creates conceptually driven works in sculpture and installations using steel, plastic, wood and vinyl. He has created outdoor sculptures and installations professionally for more than 20 years. His works have been included in exhibitions throughout the US included New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and internationally in more than 100 group, solo and outdoor exhibitions. For the past few years his focus has been on public art and outdoor sculpture creating works that bring awareness to our surrounding environment using manufactured materials that bridge the gap of man-made and natural. These works have explored a variety of themes some as grand as climate change while others a mundane as storm damage to our forests and everywhere in between.

Learn More: https://www.rickherzog.com/

STOP 7: Rocky Mount Train Station

"Ladybird Poppy" by Jordan Parah, located on the grounds.

From sculpture, design to painting, Jordan Parah's main focus in her work is equality in our society; equal rights portrayed through large-scale sculpture. She challenges the intrinsic properties of metals and form them into unique, harmonious compositions that exemplify coexistence. She received her BFA from East Carolina University in Sculpture and a minor in Art History. She creates metal fabricated sculptures using aluminum, steel, and stainless steel. Her sculptures are in public and private collections throughout the southeast. Parah grew up Greensboro, NC and currently resides and maintains a studio in Greenville, NC.

Learn More: http://www.parahdise.com/home.html

STOP 8: Station Square

"The Champion" painted by Ashley Fabrizio and designed by Marion Clark Weathers, located on the grounds.

In its heyday, The Champion was Seaboard Coastline Railroad’s flagship passenger train, leaving New York City’s Penn Station at 12:30 p.m. and arriving in Jacksonville, Fla., early the next morning. The line, which ran from 1939 through 1979, made Rocky Mount one of its stops. So eye-popping were the train’s colors and sleek post-industrial design, The Champion was nicknamed “the Sexy Train.” This mural seeks to highlight the area’s historical relationship with railroads — and its future.

Ashley Fabrizio is a fine artist and muralist. Fabrizio was one of nearly a dozen mural artists asked to submit a proposal for the work. Born in Connecticut, Fabrizio arrived in Nash County as a youth with her family. Today, the energetic mother of two now calls Wilson home and operates her art business out of her woman-owned studio.

Learn More: https://www.instagram.com/ashleyfabrizioart/

STOP 9: Hall of Fame on S.E. Main Street

"Musical Legends Mural" by Sean Kernick, located on the grounds.

The mural, which was sponsored by Downtown Renaissance, Inc., overlooks the same lot as the Thelonious Monk mural downtown. All seven people depicted in the mural were chosen by DRI for their musical contributions and connections to the area. DRI shared the following about each of the subjects: George Higgs was a blues musician active from the 1940s to 2010s performing everywhere from local fish fries to Lincoln Center in New York and internationally. Kay Kyser, “The Ole Professor,” was a major big band leader and radio star blending music and comedy in the 1930s and 1940s who also starred in several motion pictures. Milton Bullock, “The Golden Platter,” performed for many years with The Platters, who had numerous chart-topping hits in the 1950s and 1960s. Dan and Brenda Crocker founded the Tar River Choral and Orchestra Society, which now includes a philharmonic orchestra, swing band, adult and children’s choruses, and youth strings. Patsy Gilliland is former Miss North Carolina and winner of the Miss America talent competition. She performed throughout the country and internationally and is long time director of the Tar River Children’s Chorus. Luther Barnes is a nationally honored gospel music singer, songwriter, producer, Grammy nominee, and 2005 inductee into the International Gospel Hall of Fame. He is Senior Pastor and Founder of Restoration Worship Center in Rocky Mount.

Marion Weathers, an artist in Rocky Mount, created the concept for the mural. Sean Kernick, a muralist who has completed projects throughout the United States, including recent work for Disney, Advance Auto Parts, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, painted the mural.

Learn More: https://marionclarkweathersblog.wordpress.com/about/
Learn More: https://www.instagram.com/seanorock/?hl=en

STOP 10: City Lake in Rocky Mount, NC

"Garden Harmony" by Cathy Perry, located on the grounds.

The dynamics of a domestic environment, cycles of the natural world, and portrayal of childhood are explored through these steel and aluminum sculptures. The sculptures express families entwined, interwoven, and surviving together. Steel is manipulated, woven, and twisted together to represent specific points in my childhood memories. Molds of natural material are cast into aluminum and bronze. Perry's work represents growing up on a farm in southwestern Kentucky with her mother and five sisters. It is connected to family life which cycled through many generations of traditions. The memories of gardening, flower and vegetable, are represented in these sculptures. A garden will encourage a person to slow down and relax. Take a stroll down a dappled path, spend some time in a swing hanging in a shady corner, listen to the burbling of a fountain that lures birds to take a bath, and realize the harmony found in nature.

Learn More: https://www.facebook.com/cathyperryscultpurestudio/

STOP 11: Rocky Mount City Hall

"Desert Ridge" by Glen Zweygardt, located on the grounds.

Kansas born, Zweygardt earned the BFA degree from Wichita State in 1967. He received the MFA from the Maryland Institute of Art in 1969 and is an emeritus Professor of Sculpture at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Zweygardt works independently in his immense workshop in Alfred Station, New York. Here his work continues to evolve-varied shapes and rich surfaces, transparent and dense forms, concept and technical relationships, personal and collective perceptions-into fine art of eminent legacy.

Learn More: https://www.glennzweygardt.com/

STOP 12: Rocky Mount City Hall

"The Odds are Staked in Your Favor" by Wayne Trapp, located on the grounds.

Wayne Trapp received his BFA from Ohio University. He also studied at the Pratt Institute, the Art Students League, and Pittsburgh’s Art Institute. Trapp’s inquisitive and thoughtful nature has propelled him and his career for over 40 years. He has created monumental outdoor sculptures for museums, corporations, and schools as well as smaller scale works for private collections. Ten years ago, Trapp also began to paint in order to express what he could not convey through sculpture. The creative process of painting has provided the artist with an alternative outlet for his creative energy. He resides in North Carolina.

STOP 13: Thelonious Monk Plaza

"Thelonious Monk Mural" by Scott Nurkin

Born on October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Thelonious was only four when his mother and his two siblings, Marion and Thomas, moved to New York City. Today Thelonious Monk is widely accepted as a genuine master of American music. His compositions constitute the core of jazz repertory and are performed by artists from many different genres.

Scott Nurkin grew up in Charlotte and currently resides in Chapel Hill, NC. He earned his BFA in painting and drawing from UNC Chapel Hill and studied at Rhodes College and Lorenzo Di Medici Institute of Art in Florence, IT. After college Scott apprenticed with a master mural painter for 2 years and has been painting murals professionally for nearly 20 years.

Learn More: https://www.instagram.com/themuralshop

STOP 14: City Lake in Rocky Mount

Steel Sculptures by Jonathan Bowling

Jonathan Bowling grew up on a small farm in Kentucky, where the Appalachian Mountains melt into the rolling hills of the Bluegrass. His first sculptural efforts were the simple games of childhood - fieldstone castles, a bridle of hay twine, a driftwood armada. As a teenager in the late eighties, Bowling lived in Belgium, where he had access to the museums of Western Europe. On his return to the states he attended the University of Kentucky where he received his BFA in sculpture and a BA in art history. In 1996 he moved to Greenville, North Carolina, to pursue an MFA in sculpture at East Carolina University in 1999. He has been working out of Greenville ever since. Bowling has showed extensively in the Eastern United States, which has resulted in a number of long term lease agreements and sales to municipalities and private collectors.

Learn More: https://jonathanbowling.com/home.html

STOP 15: Tar River Art Gallery

Located inside The Dunn Center on the campus of North Carolina Wesleyan University, the Tar River Art Gallery is a vibrant new addition to Rocky Mount’s growing arts scene. Featuring works by more than 40 talented local artists, the gallery showcases an ever-changing collection of paintings, photographs, sculptures, prints, and mixed-media creations that highlight the creativity and spirit of Eastern North Carolina.

What began as the beloved Gravely Gallery — named in honor of Janice Gravely — has now expanded into this inspiring new space that continues her legacy of supporting the arts and celebrating local talent. Visitors can browse the exhibits, meet the artists during special receptions, and even purchase artwork to take a piece of Nash County’s creativity home.

The gallery is free and open to the public Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM (closed on holidays), with free parking available at The Dunn Center.

And if you’re here this season, don’t miss The Life & Art of Charles M. Schulz, a nationally touring exhibition celebrating the joy of Peanuts and the creative genius of its beloved creator. On display November 14, 2025 – January 29, 2026 at The Dunn Center, tickets are just $5 per person, with free admission for children under 5.

STOP 16: Be Creative at Pinspiration

If you are looking for a unique and fun experience in arts and crafts, Pinspiration is the place to be. The studio's inviting atmosphere is designed to inspire creativity, and the staff is always available to help customers with their projects and provide guidance where needed. One of the best things about Pinspiration is the variety of creative options available to customers. You can either bring your idea and work on it at the studio or choose from an array of ever-changing monthly project menus based on the most popular social media projects and current craft trends.