Hendo Bee Line Sidewalk Mural Project
The Hendo Bee Line
The Hendo Bee Line is an interactive “yellow brick road” created by Elizabeth and David Queen in Hendersonville, NC. The outdoor installation inspires pedestrians of all ages to hop, skip, stroll along a honey-combed path, enjoying a bee’s-eye view through Four Seasons of mostly WNC native flowers as they make their way along the 840 ft collaborative art installation.
The honeycomb path is ordered in the Fibonacci sequence to correlate with the reproductive cycles/family trees of bees with approximately 30 flowers, all vital to many types of pollinators. The design also includes children's art sections, filled with different pollinators: hummingbirds, bees, caterpillars, butterflies, nocturnal moths, and other wildlife that contribute to the biodiversity of this garden.
The garden is also home to a couple of fairies, a flower sniffing rainbow dinosaur and a honeycomb hopscotch board right at the depot. Twenty local artists, from students to internationally renowned artists and illustrators, contributed to the flower designs.
Grand Opening of the Downtown
Art Route Sidewalk Mural Project
A four-month “quick action” project to create the Downtown Art Route Sidewalk Mural will culminate in a grand opening reception on Friday, December 3 at 4 pm at the corner of 5th Avenue and Maple Street in Downtown Hendersonville. This project was driven by public participation from the community, where locals were invited to submit concepts and ideas for a sidewalk mural in a project funded by an AARP Community Challenge Grant. The grants were designed for quick action projects to help communities become more livable for people of all ages. The Friends of Downtown Hendersonville were one of only 244 grantees selected from across all 50 states, Washington D.C, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The purpose of the project was to build the pedestrian connection between the two downtown commercial districts through creative visible sidewalk murals that were selected and created through an engaged community process. The Friends of Downtown Hendersonville, in partnership with the City of Hendersonville, has been making strategic efforts to connect the 7th Avenue and Main Street districts. This endeavor has included a public-private partnership to complete the historic rehabilitation of the award-winning Grey Mill redevelopment workforce housing project that is located along 5th Avenue and serves as an anchor between the districts. Additionally, the Friends of Downtown began the Hendersonville Farmers Market in 2020 on Maple Street, a connection that will serve as a destination at the Depot end of the Downtown Art Route.
Through community input and selection, three designs were selected to complete the project: “Bear Crossing” and “Hendo” by Diamond Cash, and “The Hendo Bee Line” by Elizabeth and David Queen. After planning with the artists, the project site was finalized on 5th Avenue from Grove to Maple, and then on Maple Street from 5th Avenue to the Depot.
Starting in October, the artists put brushes to sidewalk to build their respective murals, often greeted by curious customers from the Hendersonville Farmers Market as they worked to complete their designs in the time available. Artists recruited their friends and family in addition to Friends of Downtown volunteers to help with the process. Combined, volunteers and artists spent over one thousand hours completing the project in October and early November.