A brilliantly colorful and vibrant new mural now brightens a key building in Davenport’s Hilltop Campus Village.
HCV celebrated the completion of its newest public art project with Zay Williams’s new mural “Beauty of Essence” on Friday, Sept. 4, at Celebrity’s Beauty Supply, 1600 Harrison Street in Davenport.
It’s on the west wall of the store, facing away from Harrison, transforming a highly visible building in the Hilltop Campus Village into a colorful new piece of public art, representing another step in HCV’s effort to put recommendations from its recently completed Master Plan into action.
“This mural is about more than adding color to a building,” said Brian Kramer, executive director of the Hilltop Campus Village. “Public art can help create a sense of place and identity for a neighborhood. We want people driving through the Hilltop to notice these spaces, and we want residents and businesses to feel a sense of pride in the neighborhood.”
The project was made possible through grant support from the city of Davenport and Quad City Arts, along with the partnership of Celebrity’s Beauty Supply and the work of Williams, a 31-year-old Rock Island High alum.
Funding of $3,000 was granted from Davenport’s CISP program, with support from former Alderwoman Marion Meginnis and current Aldermen Kyle Gripp and Ben Jobgen, and Alderwoman Jade Burkholder, and QC Arts granted $4,000 for the project.
“We spent a lot of time over the last couple of years asking people what they wanted to see happen in the Hilltop,” Kramer said. “Now we're at the point where we can begin turning some of those conversations into tangible projects. Funding and creating public art is a vibrant first step in showing the community that we mean business.”
“The reason this is important is we did our master plan last year for this neighborhood, and coming out of that plan, a lot of people said more installations of art, more placemaking activities,” he said, noting this building was identified to help activate the parking lot and this area of 16th Street for public events, like food trucks and music.
Public art and placemaking were identified through the HCV Master Plan as opportunities to strengthen neighborhood identity, improve the pedestrian experience, support local businesses, and encourage additional investment throughout the district.
“One of the things is you need to make that sense of place, and by doing that, we created this wonderful mural,” Kramer said. “By creating a sense of place, you're also creating a sense of value for this neighborhood. The number of comments as people have watched Zay create this mural, it's just been wonderful. It shows how important this has been to this community.
"People have said it's wonderful that we're putting color back into this neighborhood, we're putting art back into this neighborhood. These are all important things.”
From community surveys, people said they didn’t want just random pop art, he said.
“They wanted to see something that would be timeless, and Zay hit the mark on that.” Kramer said. “And they mentioned that the fact that it was Celebrity’s Beauty Supply, that we should go with maybe a theme of beauty supply products to kind of add to that. And once again, Zay did a great job.”
“By installing art pieces like this, not only are you creating a sense of place, but you’re also creating a sense of value to the neighborhood,” he said.
“People start to see that we've been seeing that a lot with some of the projects we've been doing,” Kramer said, noting the recent painting of murals on crosswalks at 14th and Main streets.
“Which seems small, but the outpouring we saw from the community saying, yes, this is what we’d like to see, that tells us we’re going in the right direction,” he said.
Of Williams’s beauty store mural design, Kramer said: “I am blown out of the water when he brought this to my attention, and I was just like, yes, go with this.”
“One of the cool things this summer that has been happening in this community are the number of murals. Zay is just one artist, and he has been doing a lot in this neighborhood, so we thank him,” he said.
Building community
“We want to really appreciate the Hilltop Campus for what they're trying to do with the Hilltop itself, trying to bring people together in this building,” Celebrity’s co-owner Lonnie Westerfield said Friday, noting the mural helps build the community.
“There's many places we can go and do business, there's many things that we can do. We chose right here for a reason,” Westerfield said, adding he grew up nearby.
“I want Zay to understand how big and important he is,” he said. “We want people like Zay to prosper. With this art, he spoke a lot of words. There's a lot of messages in this art, and that's what art does. And we all can get a different message, but there's a great message in this art. Look at the brightness of it.
“We got kids coming early in the morning,” Westerfield said of students who walk by to attend Davenport Central. “The kids are comfortable when they walk through here. We give them that safety, then they can— let them know they can be who they are and they can be great. So that's what we're building for. There's no other mission than all of these kids.”
To Williams, he said: “We hope nothing but the greatness out of you. I hope you go from this point on and just keep going where you're going. You have such a talent, and you must always believe in yourself and showing that you have one. Believe nothing else, and nothing can stop you but yourself.”
“We are definitely blessed and amazed at what they come up with. I tell you, it's a blessing,” said Constance Westerfield, Lonnie’s wife. She praised Kramer for taking over the Hilltop and bringing new life to it.
“Since Brian has come to the Hilltop, he's done amazing things, and it just keeps getting bigger. I'm so overwhelmed with all that we have in mind and all that he's made come possible already,” Constance said. “Hilltop, when we first came (in 2021), it didn't look like this. But now if you look at Hilltop, you see people, everyone's going to different stores, customers. I mean, we got— he's incorporated the college. I mean, Hilltop is booming right now. Hilltop is the place to be.
“And this is destiny,” she said of the mural. “With the dedication of this mural that he's done, it's amazing. It definitely brings light to the neighborhood. A lot of places don't have the ability to be able to have something like this, so this is definitely something that we're treasuring. It's definitely bringing the community together, and Zay's just amazing.”
Creating vibrancy, life, smiles
“One of the biggest things that I noticed that the community wanted was vibrancy, and that just so happens to be my style of artwork,” Williams said. “It's like my biggest project.”
Last year, he created a large civil rights mural for the store’s interior, at the smoothie bar. Williams thanked the Westerfields for believing in his ability.
“One of the most uplifting parts of this process was while working on it, random people would just come up to me and just tell me how much they appreciate my work. They would give me water because it was hot,” he said of the outdoor mural, done over four weeks.
"It was just amazing to see the community come out and support me during the process and not just after the process. So just being an artist and doing a project like this was just— it was very uplifting, it was inspiring. I'm glad that I was able to create something that brought life and vibrancy and just something different to the community because something like this, it draws attention.”
“It draws the young people as well. Like, there was some kids that actually took pictures next to the mural, and that just warmed my heart because, it's important that our youth see something different,” the artist said. “They see creativity, that they see life, that they see vibrancy, and they see it on a Black-owned business especially. So it's just been an honor. It's been a privilege to be able to do such a big project. It was trial and error. It was a task. It rained for like two weeks straight.
“It was a great challenge, but challenges come when you do big things,” Williams said. “I'm just honored and I'm blessed to be able to do this, and I'm looking forward to doing more projects. And I'm just blessed that the community loves it because that was my goal, is for the community to resonate and to love the project. I'm just, I'm thankful and I can't wait to do more. So thank you all again so much for coming out and supporting.”
He did not paint the mural Black woman’s face based on anyone specific, but he incorporated a skyline of beauty products to reflect the business inside.
“I mean, it's a beauty supply store, so I kind of wanted to combine that with like a cityscape,” Williams said. “I thought that would be really cool.”
“I really wanted to make something come alive. I wanted to make something that really would speak to people and that they would just kind of sit there and just really like look at it,” he said. “It's captivating. So it's really inspired by, I would say, just the people here in the community, just a little bit of everybody. You know, I combined different colors together just to really make it vibrant and pop out. So I was really proud to be able to do that.”
“I think it really brings inspiration, it brings vibrancy, it brings color. I think it brings life,” Williams added. “I really wanted to add some natural elements to it too. Like, as you can see behind me, there's some hummingbirds, some butterflies.”
He hopes the mural can help brighten someone’s day.
“I want their soul to smile. Like, I want every part of their body to be captivated by it, for them to be able to be inspired, to be encouraged, for it to brighten their day,” Williams said. “There's so many vibrant colors in this mural. Somebody actually came up to me and said that they were having a bad day and they seen this mural and it bettered their day. So, I want that. I want people to feel better.
“I want there to be like spiritual healing from it because colors actually bring out different emotions,” he said. “They actually heal different emotions, and I want my artwork to be a reflection of the community around us and also just be able to brighten people's day and make them happy in a way.”
Part of broader public art
HCV sees the Celebrity’s Beauty Supply mural as part of a broader public art movement taking shape throughout the Hilltop. In 2026 alone, several new murals have been installed within the district, adding new color, creativity, and storytelling to the neighborhood.
Along 5th Street, local entrepreneur Robbie Wolfe commissioned QC artist Atlanta Dawn to create a mural highlighting Davenport’s history and its role in manufacturing and industry. The Friends of MLK also installed a mural (along the train bridge wall at 5th and Brady) celebrating Black history in Davenport by renowned artist Cbabi Bayoc.
Additionally, Williams created a portrait mural of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. behind the stage at MLK Park earlier this summer.
“We have some wonderful murals and public art throughout the Hilltop, but there are also opportunities to restore older pieces and create new ones,” Kramer said. “Our goal is to build on this project and continue finding ways to incorporate art into the neighborhood. These are investments that can change how people experience a place and help create momentum for other improvements.”
The new mural is one of several visible projects undertaken by the HCV as the organization moves from planning into implementation. In August, HCV partnered with more than 20 first-year students from St. Ambrose University to complete a high-visibility painted crosswalk at 14th and Main streets. Like the mural, the crosswalk project grew from priorities identified during the Master Plan process.
Williams dedicated his mural of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., behind the stage at MLK Park, 501 N. Brady St., Davenport, on July 21, 2026. That mural honors Dr. King’s only Quad Cities appearance, in 1965, to receive the “Pacem in Terris” Peace and Freedom Award.
“It means a lot of things. I would say, definitely encouraged, definitely inspired,” Williams said in July of the MLK Park piece. “It means more that you know, he was here, that he made an impact, he made a difference, and his influence stretches far beyond what we know. So I'm happy to have been a part of this project.”
This story was produced by WVIK, Quad Cities NPR. We rely on financial support from our listeners and readers to provide coverage of the issues that matter to the Quad Cities region and beyond. As someone who values the content created by WVIK's news department, please consider making a financial contribution to support our work.
