{"id":308321,"date":"2026-05-25T20:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T20:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/308321\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T20:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T20:36:11","slug":"future-of-soccer-fifa-world-cup-mural-unveiled-near-downtown-dallas-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/308321\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Future of soccer\u2019: FIFA World Cup mural unveiled near downtown Dallas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of children wearing uniforms in a rainbow of colors \u2014 from neon pink to mottled green camouflage \u2014 kept soccer balls at their feet as they held giant pairs of scissors Monday morning in front of a\u00a0new mural on the western edge of downtown Dallas<\/a>. 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\u2019s biggest tournament: the FIFA World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Shafkat Anowar\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n

Together the children and the artists, along with a city\u00a0councilmember, snipped a long green ribbon in front of the wall as a crowd clapped and cheered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cPublic art is so important, and this mural appropriately captures and represents the innocence and fun of what soccer represents,\u201d District 6 councilmember Laura Cadena said. \u201cIt makes a statement for our West Dallas community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city is preparing for the start of the World Cup in June, with\u00a0new initiatives popping up to decorate downtown Dallas\u2019 Main Street<\/a> with murals and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure to encourage tourists to explore.<\/p>\n

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Dallas-based Daniel\u00a0Yanez, 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.<\/p>\n

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\"Artist<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Shafkat Anowar\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d he said. \u201cNot long after my sister passed, I got the message that I\u2019d get to come here and work on this mural.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means the world that everything came full circle,\u201d\u00a0Yanez said.<\/p>\n

The other artists who worked on the mural were Houston-based Bimbo Adenugba and Ade Odunfa.<\/p>\n

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The completed mural is the largest in Dallas history,\u00a0Cadena 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The World Cup mural,\u00a0One Field, Infinite Smiles, is displayed Monday, May 25, 2026, on the western\u00a0edge of downtown Dallas.<\/p>\n

Shafkat Anowar\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n

The mural was\u00a0curated by nonprofit Street Art for Mankind, or SAM, for the Trinity Park Conservancy.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

The Trinity Park Conservancy is a nonprofit chosen in 2018 to design, construct and maintain\u00a0Harold Simmons Park<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, he said Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith 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,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThe kids here represent the future of soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Kids<\/p>\n

Kids gather for the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a World Cup mural on the western edge of downtown Dallas, on Monday, May 25, 2026.<\/p>\n

Shafkat Anowar\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n

Starting May 30, the Trinity Park Conservancy will host a two-day Dallas Soccer Kickoff\u00a0Fest including soccer teams, such as FC Dallas, and more than\u00a050 Dallas-based vendors. The organization will also install the International Corridor of Flags, featuring all 48 World Cup-qualified countries<\/a>, along Ronald Kirk Bridge on Tuesday, May 26.<\/p>\n

Another\u00a0FIFA World Cup mural<\/a> planned for 505 N. Akard Street in downtown Dallas recently caused controversy after painters covered the existing mural<\/a>, Robert Wyland’s Whaling Wall 82, earlier this month.<\/p>\n

That artwork\u00a0was part of a series of 103 murals painted by Wyland. It was 164 feet wide and depicted six life-size humpback whales.\u00a0Wyland painted it in 1999 and it resurfaced in 2020<\/a> after being covered by ads for years.<\/p>\n

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Audrey Decker previously told The Dallas Morning News that SAM is not associated with the cover-up of\u00a0Wyland\u2019s mural<\/a> and doesn’t support the erasure of public art.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson with the North Texas\u00a0FIFA World Cup organizing committee said the new mural is meant to \u201ccelebrate and build excitement for the upcoming World Cup 2026.\u201d There have been no updates on that mural as of Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of children wearing uniforms in a rainbow of colors \u2014 from neon pink to mottled green camouflage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[732,102,104,103,88574,87998,95040,87906],"class_list":["post-308321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-article","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-downtown-dallas","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-west-dallas","tag-tp-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}