"A Brighter Side" Mural: What to Know About This Short North Public Art Installation
Painted on the exterior wall of a commercial building in Columbus's Short North Arts District, "A Brighter Side" is a large-scale outdoor mural featuring bold figurative imagery and optimistic, color-forward composition designed to be viewed from street level.
What the Mural Is and Where to Find It
The mural sits in the Short North, Columbus's most concentrated corridor for public art, where painted building exteriors have become as expected as the galleries and restaurants that line High Street between Downtown and the Ohio State University campus. "A Brighter Side" contributes to that streetscape tradition with a piece that reads clearly from across the street and rewards closer inspection for its detail.
Exact address confirmation is best done through the Columbus Office of Arts and Culture's public art map at the City of Columbus website, or by searching "A Brighter Side mural Columbus" on Google Maps before visiting. The Short North generally runs along North High Street from approximately Goodale Avenue north to Buttles Avenue, and most murals in the district are accessible on foot from the Short North Arts District parking garages on Hubbard Avenue and on Lane Avenue, both of which offer metered or paid hourly parking.
Cost and Access
Viewing is free and the mural is accessible any time the surrounding streetscape is publicly accessible, which for the Short North means around the clock. There are no tickets, reservations, or admission requirements. This is standard for Columbus's outdoor public art inventory, which spans hundreds of works across the city.
Style and Subject
"A Brighter Side" fits within a tradition of message-forward mural art that has grown significantly in Columbus since the early 2010s, when city investment in public art programs accelerated alongside Short North development. The piece uses high-saturation color and figurative forms in a style consistent with contemporary American social muralism, where legibility from a distance and emotional directness are prioritized over abstraction. This approach differs from the more graphic, text-heavy designs seen in murals along Parsons Avenue in the South Side, and from the abstract geometric work found in some of the Columbus murals commissioned through the Greater Columbus Arts Council's public art program.
How It Fits Into the Short North Mural Landscape
The Short North has more documented outdoor murals per block than any other Columbus neighborhood. Walking north from Downtown on High Street, visitors will encounter works ranging from large-scale portrait murals to typographic pieces to fully narrative scenes wrapping around building corners. "A Brighter Side" is one of several murals in the district that function as informal photo destinations, particularly on weekend afternoons when foot traffic on High Street is highest.
For a direct comparison: the Franklinton neighborhood, roughly two miles west of Downtown, now operates an organized mural trail through the Franklinton Arts District, with a printed and digital map available through the 400 West Rich arts complex. That trail is more self-guided in structure, with murals spread across a larger geographic footprint and less ambient retail density than the Short North corridor. Visitors who want to move efficiently from mural to mural in a single walk without significant navigation will find the Short North format more compressed. Visitors who prefer discovering murals in a quieter, less commercial setting and are willing to cover more ground on foot or by bike will find Franklinton a different kind of experience.
Who This Suits
Anyone exploring the Short North on foot will encounter this mural without planning for it specifically, which is part of how the neighborhood's public art functions: it extends the visual interest of the district beyond gallery doors and into the gaps between businesses. The mural works well as a stopping point for people already walking High Street for other reasons, including visiting the Short North's independent retailers, stopping for lunch or coffee, or heading to the Columbus Museum of Art two blocks off High Street on Broad Street.
It is less suited as a standalone destination if you're driving in from outside the neighborhood without other plans, given that Short North parking costs money and street spots are competitive on weekends.
Practical Notes
Parking garages in the Short North, including the Hubbard Avenue structure, are typically the most reliable option on Friday and Saturday when street spots fill quickly by midday. The Short North is walkable from the Nationwide Arena area and from the southern edge of the Ohio State campus, making it accessible without a car for visitors staying or working near either anchor. The mural itself requires no planning beyond getting to the general corridor. Bringing the Columbus public art map, available through the City of Columbus Office of Arts and Culture website, lets visitors contextualize "A Brighter Side" within the broader inventory and plan a more complete walking loop through the neighborhood's outdoor collection.
