building belonging through creative practice

muralist |‍ teaching artist |‍ Community engagement leader |‍ Custom Sign Maker | ‍Art Handler

Tammy Barnes (they/them) is a Washington, DC–based muralist, teaching artist, community engagement leader, custom sign maker, and professional art handler. Across every aspect of their work, Tammy creates opportunities for people to connect—with one another, with their communities, and with the creative process itself. Whether designing a mural, facilitating a workshop, painting custom signage, or preparing artwork for exhibition, they approach each project with curiosity, collaboration, and careful attention to detail.

Tammy's public art practice includes murals, streetlight banners, traffic box wraps, and other site-specific artwork for schools, neighborhoods, businesses, municipalities, and cultural organizations throughout Washington, DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia. Each project is thoughtfully designed to reflect the identity, history, ecology, and people of the place it serves, resulting in artwork that is both visually engaging and meaningful to the surrounding community.

As a teaching artist and community engagement facilitator, Tammy develops custom curricula, public art engagement strategies, and creative experiences that welcome participation from people of all ages and experience levels. Their work ranges from classroom instruction and youth summer camps to collaborative mural paint days, community canvases, family festival activities, and public engagement initiatives that help inform the design of permanent artwork. They believe that people are more likely to connect with public art when they have meaningful opportunities to help shape it.

Alongside their studio practice, Tammy works professionally as an art handler, supporting exhibitions for the Smithsonian Institution and assisting with artwork installation, packing, transportation, and exhibition preparation for museums, galleries, private collections, and international art fairs, including Art Basel Miami Beach and Design Miami. This behind-the-scenes work continues to deepen their understanding of craftsmanship, exhibition design, and the care required to preserve and present works of art.

Tammy is also committed to strengthening the arts community through leadership, mentorship, and service. They previously served as Treasurer of the Artbae Foundation and volunteered as the Festival Operations and Communications Lead for the 2026 Anacostia Murals Fest, helping coordinate one of Washington, DC's largest community mural festivals, while also coordinating the festival’s collaborative volumed work, Community Coloring Book Volume II. As a self-taught artist, Tammy believes in sharing knowledge rather than gatekeeping and enjoys mentoring emerging muralists while creating opportunities for others to grow through public art.

Whether working with a municipality, museum, nonprofit, business, school, or neighborhood organization, Tammy's goal remains the same - to create meaningful experiences that help people feel seen, valued, and connected through visual arts.