Dozens of children wearing uniforms in a rainbow of colors — from neon pink to mottled green camouflage — kept soccer balls at their feet as they held giant pairs of scissors Monday morning in front of a new mural on the western edge of downtown Dallas. Next to them stood four artists who painted the mural on the old Dawson State Jail on West Commerce Street to mark the imminent arrival of soccer’s biggest tournament: the FIFA World Cup.
The piece, called One Field, Infinite Smiles, is 150 feet tall and 250 feet wide and took more than two weeks to complete, with the artists using more than 200 gallons of acrylic paint and 300 cans of spray paint per day, said Netherlands-based muralist Rosalie De Graff.
Artist Rosalie De Graaf listens to speakers during the official ribbon-cutting ceremony of One Field, Infinite Smiles on Monday, May 25, 2026, in Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
Together the children and the artists, along with a city councilmember, snipped a long green ribbon in front of the wall as a crowd clapped and cheered.
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“Public art is so important, and this mural appropriately captures and represents the innocence and fun of what soccer represents,” District 6 councilmember Laura Cadena said. “It makes a statement for our West Dallas community.”
The city is preparing for the start of the World Cup in June, with new initiatives popping up to decorate downtown Dallas’ Main Street with murals and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure to encourage tourists to explore.
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Dallas-based Daniel Yanez, one of the artists who worked on One Field, Infinite Smiles, said he holds the project near to his heart because his sister was an inmate in the building, and she passed away last year.
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Artist Daniel Yanez, who helped paint One Field, Infinite Smiles, gets invited to the podium during the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, on Monday, May 25, 2026, in Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
“I remember visiting her as a kid, and I would always pray to God, asking him to bring something better to the people in the building, to beautify it,” he said. “Not long after my sister passed, I got the message that I’d get to come here and work on this mural.
“It means the world that everything came full circle,” Yanez said.
The other artists who worked on the mural were Houston-based Bimbo Adenugba and Ade Odunfa.
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The completed mural is the largest in Dallas history, Cadena said. It features four children wearing the jerseys of teams that will play each other during the nine matches at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
The first North Texas match will be between the Netherlands and Japan on June 14. Other teams competing locally are England, Croatia, Argentina, Austria, Sweden and Jordan.
The World Cup mural, One Field, Infinite Smiles, is displayed Monday, May 25, 2026, on the western edge of downtown Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
The mural was curated by nonprofit Street Art for Mankind, or SAM, for the Trinity Park Conservancy.
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One Field, Infinite Smiles is meant to represent the accessibility of soccer and act as a beacon of unity for Dallas, co-founders of SAM Thibault and Audrey Decker said. SAM was founded in 2011 to use art to inspire communities to discuss social and environmental justice.
The Trinity Park Conservancy is a nonprofit chosen in 2018 to design, construct and maintain Harold Simmons Park in partnership with the city of Dallas and the Trinity River Corridor Local Government Corporation. The conservancy bought the old jail building, which sits on the western edge of downtown Dallas, in 2019.
The mural faces the Trinity River in what will be the eastern overlook of the park, said Tony Moore, president and CEO of the conservancy. The park is under construction and is expected to open to the public in late 2028, he said Monday morning.
“With the World Cup coming to North Texas, what an opportunity we had to work with Street Art for Mankind to make a statement about art, culture and sports,” Moore said. “The kids here represent the future of soccer.”
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Kids gather for the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a World Cup mural on the western edge of downtown Dallas, on Monday, May 25, 2026.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
Starting May 30, the Trinity Park Conservancy will host a two-day Dallas Soccer Kickoff Fest including soccer teams, such as FC Dallas, and more than 50 Dallas-based vendors. The organization will also install the International Corridor of Flags, featuring all 48 World Cup-qualified countries, along Ronald Kirk Bridge on Tuesday, May 26.
Another FIFA World Cup mural planned for 505 N. Akard Street in downtown Dallas recently caused controversy after painters covered the existing mural, Robert Wyland’s Whaling Wall 82, earlier this month.
That artwork was part of a series of 103 murals painted by Wyland. It was 164 feet wide and depicted six life-size humpback whales. Wyland painted it in 1999 and it resurfaced in 2020 after being covered by ads for years.
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Audrey Decker previously told The Dallas Morning News that SAM is not associated with the cover-up of Wyland’s mural and doesn’t support the erasure of public art.
A spokesperson with the North Texas FIFA World Cup organizing committee said the new mural is meant to “celebrate and build excitement for the upcoming World Cup 2026.” There have been no updates on that mural as of Monday afternoon.