Elm Crossing mural emphasizes academics and Wingate history

By Chuck Gordon

An all-but-completed mural at the entrance to the new Elm Crossing graduate-student housing complex is providing students with some motivation and a feeling of home. It's also providing a pop of color to a Wingate downtown that's in the process of being reimagined.

The mural, by Charlotte-based artist Hilary Siber Edwards, is a collaboration among the town of Wingate, the University, and Elm Crossing developer True Homes.

"What I like is the public-art aspect of it," says Charlene Bregier, coordinator of the University's art department and director of the Hinson Art Museum. "It enhances the experience so that it's more than just a dwelling."

The mural, which greets visitors entering the development's parking lot, depicts several aspects of life in the town and at the University: a train, a sunrise, beakers, writing utensils, an owl (representing knowledge).

Perhaps most important, it shows graduates in caps and gowns.

"I really felt like the students who live there would not just feel like they were coming home," Bregier says, "but that they would be getting a glimpse of their future one day."

Elm Crossing, which sits at the corner of Elm and Main streets and opened to residents in January, consists of townhomes and duplexes, with rooms for rent starting at $750 a month. The dwellings were designed with graduate students in mind.

True Homes factored in a certain amount of money for a mural when it was planning Elm Crossing. The University kicked in some too.

"The mural is a visible expression of the great partnership between the University, the town and True Homes," says James Bullock, the University's senior vice president for advancement. "I think it captures our historic ties to the railroad and our investment in healthcare education in an interesting way."

That's what Siber Edwards was going for.

Blake Edwards touches up the mural.

"The imagery illustrates the many facets of academic life: studying, applying knowledge and eventually departing college and heading into various fields of study," she says. "There is also a nod to the history of Wingate's industry that is defined by the railroad tracks, not far from Elm Street and the location of the mural."

Siber Edwards chose a "linocut" style for the painting, and she says that the "rainbow colors gradient into one another to reflect the different seasons that students pass through while studying at Wingate."

Siber Edwards and her husband, film and TV director and editor Blake Edwards, are expecting their second child soon, so Blake is at Elm Crossing this week finishing up the last bits of the mural. "I'm helping realize her vision," he says.

Blake says that murals such as the Elm Crossing one bring something "tactile" to a society that has become predominantly digital. "Something like a mural or installation, especially at this scale, gives a tactile grounding to a space," he says. "It''s a break from what we're interacting with most of the day. It's something that I think people are craving, even if they don't know it."

Bregier says she was impressed that True Homes was intentional about adding art to its development.

"True Homes believes in the importance of public art to build community and culture in spaces where we live and play," says Mark Boyce, founding partner of True Homes. "We were pleased to be a small part of making this mural happen."

Bregier had followed Siber's work for years and was glad to get to work with her. She says she hopes the artwork "sparks dialogue."

"It's really personal to the folks that are going to live there, and that sets it apart from murals at a shopping center that have to appeal to everyone, where they might choose a geometric design or something like that," Bregier says. "This one is really personal. I think of it as art outside of the museum."

June 2, 2026