BROOKINGS, S.D. (KELO) — There’s a new reason to head to downtown Brookings. This week, more than a hundred people, armed with paintbrushes, came together to make the city a little more beautiful.

The Brookings Arts Council has a new mural downtown.

“It’s just an addition onto the fun stuff to come see in our neighborhood,” Brookings Downtown executive director Kirsten Gjesdal said.

Located behind Nick’s Hamburgers, the mural features Brookings landmarks such as the South Dakota State Campanile and the downtown skyline.

“I really wanted it to be specific to Brookings with a connection to the community since it was always planned to be a community mural,” Brookings Arts Council executive director Rachel Funk said.

Because it is a community-based project, people in town were invited to paint the mural as part of 605 day on Monday.

“I really wanted to involve the community in a mural. I think people really get a lot more engaged when there’s an opportunity presented for them to come be engaged, so doing an event around getting people coming to come help paint the mural was just a super fun way to get people involved,” Gjestdal said.

“We had a lot of people, a lot of high schoolers, who were really excited, people of all age ranges with their parents getting involved. It was a really diverse and fun turnout,” Funk said.

The efforts of the 150 amateur artists who came out will help create a more dynamic downtown.

“I think the beautification of downtown is extremely important. We really want to showcase that we have a really vibrant neighborhood, and adding things like public art really showcases the unique aspects that we have in our community,” Gjestad said.

The project is set to be completed at the end of the month. Downtown Brookings hopes to fill the entire wall with murals.