BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — More than 600 hand-painted tiles, each one made by a Bowling Green neighbor, are about to become a single tree. The America 250 Liberty Tree mosaic mural — an 8-by-12-foot artwork assembled from tiles painted by more than 500 residents, families and local organizations — will be unveiled Monday, November 16, at 6:30 p.m. at the Bowling Green City Building, according to an announcement from the City of Bowling Green and the Bowling Green Community Foundation.
The mural hangs on the south wall immediately inside the City Building at 305 N. Main St., where it will greet everyone who walks in to pay a bill, pull a permit or attend a meeting. The Bowling Green Community Foundation and the city partnered on the project, which the announcement describes as a celebration of “community, creativity and connection.”
The work started back in June, when the foundation and the city put out a call — in a June 15 announcement — inviting residents of all ages to paint a tile at a series of community events. Painting sessions ran through the summer, beginning with dates on June 26 and July 3 and continuing into the Black Swamp Arts Festival weekend of September 11–13, with more dates added along the way. Every tile is an individual piece — a family’s handprint, a business’s logo, a child’s painting — and together they form the branches and canopy of a Liberty Tree.
Members of the Bowling Green Arts Council assembled the individual tiles into the Liberty Tree design, and city employees built the frame and installed the mural, according to the city’s announcement. The project was made possible through the Bowling Green Community Foundation and a matching grant from the Greater Toledo Community Foundation.
“We are honored to feature this truly community-created artwork in the Bowling Green City Building where it will welcome residents and visitors and serve as a visual reminder of the community connections we share across generations and demographics,” Bowling Green Mayor Mike Aspacher said in the city’s announcement. “This mural shares stories and carries lasting memories for everyone who had a hand in this wonderful public art.” Foundation Vice President David Maurer, also quoted in the announcement, said the project “brought together hundreds of families, individuals and organizations with a shared goal of contributing to the final artwork,” adding, “Like all public art, the mural will be accessible and free for everyone to enjoy.”
The design carries two anniversaries at once. The Liberty Tree marks America’s 250th anniversary celebration, which Ohio communities have been building toward all year under the America 250 banner. It also commemorates Bowling Green’s 46th anniversary as a Tree City USA — a fitting pairing for a college town that takes its trees seriously enough that neighbors in nearby Fremont recently raised funds to replant 25 memorial trees for veterans, and where the season’s giving is already under way through efforts like the UToledo Thanksgiving lunch that launched Angel Tree gifts for Toledo children.
The timing is not an accident. Bowling Green State University, the city’s largest institution, is marking America’s 250th anniversary with a year of programming across Wood County — BGSU’s America 250 plans include a year-long public recognition effort with community events, historical talks and an interactive quilt project, according to the university. The Liberty Tree gives the city itself a permanent piece of that celebration, made not by a commissioned artist flown in for the occasion but by the people who live with it every day. And the Tree City USA half of the dedication is its own point of pride: the Arbor Day Foundation designation recognizes communities that maintain an active tree board, a tree-care ordinance and an annual forestry program, and Bowling Green has now held it for 46 straight years, per the city’s announcement.
The mural is also built to stay personal. Anyone who painted a tile will be able to find exactly where their piece landed: a QR code posted beside the mural links to the Community Foundation’s website, where contributors can search their name and pull up their tile’s location in the tree. The foundation hosts the finder at bowlinggreencf.org/community-tree.
That detail turns a one-night unveiling into a standing invitation. A kindergartner who painted a tile in June can come back at age 30, scan the code and point to the exact spot. City buildings are usually where residents go for the least sentimental errands in civic life; Bowling Green’s is about to have a wall that hundreds of its own people literally made.
The unveiling itself is set for Monday, November 16, at 6:30 p.m. at the City Building, 305 N. Main St. The announcement invites the community to attend. After Monday, the mural becomes a permanent part of the building’s entryway, on view during regular city business hours.
What happens next, after the applause and the first QR-code scans, is the quiet part: the Liberty Tree joins the daily scenery of Bowling Green government, leafing out — tile by tile, neighbor by neighbor — over everyone who walks through the door.