Mural preservation for public collections

Murals liveoutdoors.

Most fading murals aren't lost.
The pigment is still there.

Paint is pigment held in a binder. Sun, rain, and time break down the binder first. The color looks gone. Usually, it isn't.

We stabilize and protect the existing work without repainting or changing a single brushstroke.

The Offering, a large-scale mural in the City of Dallas permanent public art collection
The Offering, 2024
City of Dallas Permanent Public Art Collection
We've found
$0
Spent on mural preservation
by most cities, once the ribbon is cut
We have
10+
Years of active field research
studying how murals degrade
We've done
40+
Large-scale public murals
painted, tested, and observed
We've worked in
18
Cities across climates, substrates,
and environmental conditions
Founded in the field
Detail of The Offering, a treated mural in the City of Dallas permanent public art collection
The Offering Dallas, TX — 2024

Built by people who understood the material first.

Anemos was founded by Jhonattan Arango, an artist whose 50'×12' mural sculpture The Offering entered the City of Dallas Permanent Public Art Collection in 2024, accepted into a program that requires a projected lifespan of 20 years or more.

Alongside his wife Samantha Arango, Jhonattan runs Art of Anón, a public mural practice that's taken him across more than a decade of painting in every kind of climate. Florida Keys humidity, Arizona desert heat, Midwestern winters. Good paintings on good walls were losing density, contrast, and color on a predictable timeline, even when everything had been done right. That pattern became a question, and the question became a methodology.

Anemos is that methodology, available to any city whether or not they're commissioning new work.

The Offering mural, Dallas TX, treated with the Anemos preservation system
The Offering — Dallas, TX
The Hidden Gem mural, Wilmington NC, outdoor public mural with protective topcoat
The Hidden Gem — Wilmington, NC
A Window In, A Window Out mural, Aventura FL, outdoor public mural with protective topcoat
A Window In, A Window Out — Aventura, FL

Treated works from the portfolio of Art of Anón

The problem

There is no infrastructure for what comes after the commission.

Paint is pigment held in a binder. When the binder fails, the color appears to fade, but the pigment is almost always still there. Understanding that changes everything about what's possible.

Cities commission murals. Artists paint them. The work goes up, celebrated and photographed, and then the system stops. No maintenance schedule, no inspection cycle, no one watching the paint. By the time a mural looks faded, most people assume it's gone. It usually isn't. But without a path forward, cities repaint, and the original work is lost.

In 2017, a city in Palm Beach County, Florida commissioned a legacy large-scale mural by a world-class artist, a six-figure investment in a work meant to last. Six years later, environmental damage had set in. The city reached out to the artist, who quoted a six-figure repair. Cost-prohibitive, they commissioned another artist and painted it over instead.

Years later, they had spent twice, for a replacement of something they never wanted to replace.

Preservation is priced like maintenance, not like a new commission. The community keeps what it paid for.

The lifecycle

Three conditions.
One works.

Every mural eventually needs attention. The only variable is when, and what's left to work with by then. The earlier a collection is assessed, the more options remain.

Without treatment
What most murals get
Most murals receive no protective treatment at creation. The work starts degrading from day one, and nothing is holding the line.
3–5 yearsTypical window before visible fading, uncoated
With a topcoat only
A partial answer
A topcoat buys time, but it isn't a system. UV absorbers in the coating degrade, and once the coating fails, the paint underneath has had no protection of its own.
5–7 yearsTypical window before degradation, with topcoat
With Anemos
A managed, repeatable system
The paint gets its binder back. A protective coating goes over it. When the coating weakens, it gets refreshed, and the original work keeps living underneath.
RepeatableA system that keeps working, as long as it's tended to
Who this is for

Any organization with public art worth keeping.

Municipalities
Mural Festivals
Universities
Corporate Collections
Developers
Nonprofits & Institutions
Get started

Let's talk about your collection.

Every engagement starts with a conversation. Twenty minutes, no commitment, no prep required. We'll talk through what you've got and figure out together what makes sense.

Quick option

Schedule 20 minutes.

Pick a time that works. We'll take it from there.

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Thank you — we'll be in touch within two business days.