ARLINGTON, Texas–Art brings life to a city. Whether through murals, museums or public art installations, art brings energy and vitality to the community.

In 2015, the Arlington Museum of Art unveiled its public art project “The Star of Texas,” which featured 20 stars placed around Arlington, each done by a different artist. Artists were invited to create a design that showed what they envisioned as the American dream city, the city of Arlington’s brand, using six-foot stars as their canvas.

The project later grew by adding six more stars as well as other sculptures around Arlington. Some were placed in a cluster together, like The Sea and Blue Sky Dream, which are featured together at the Meadowbrook Sculpture Garden off of Willis Avenue. Others are spread farther apart like the star sculpture “Aiming for the Stars” by Breanne Schwarz that sits outside J. Gilligans’s Bar & Grill off of Abram Street. Each sculpture tells a different story and offers a unique vision of what Arlington has been, is and can be.

Local photographer Briana Mendoza, who has taken pictures of all the stars, said she finds inspiration in the project.

“It’s quite special,” she said. “Every artist, no matter what they do, can go for a jog at the sculpture park and be inspired. They can go grab takeout and see something that makes them put themselves back out there.”

Even non-artists can find inspiration in the stories the pieces share. With the sculpture The Sea, sculptor Otello Guarducci emulates the waves, movements and color of the sea through steel. It brings the calmness of the water right to Arlington. With the Blue Sky Dream, North Texas sculptor Seth Vandable created a bronze sculpture of a man and a woman admiring their newborn child as they hold the child to the sky.