After nearly a year of work, organizers will officially unveil a new mural in downtown Woodburn, Oregon.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR: Become a Sponsor

The mural is part of a broad effort to revitalize and attract more visitors to Woodburn's downtown.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR: Become a Sponsor

Muralist Hector H. Hernandez's work on the side of the Woodburn Independent newspaper building highlights the tremendous diversity and storied history of the city between Portland and Salem.

Hernandez, who has lived and worked in Oregon since the mid-1990s, said he enjoys mural work like this because it is of, by and for the community in which it's displayed.

"The motivation of painting murals is because I can bring a voice of different actors and different participants of the community into this form of art," he said.

"So that can express not only their ideas, but also, in a way, an identity of the community itself."

The mural features images of the Fiesta Mexicana and a Russian Orthodox Church, symbolizing some of Woodburn's various immigrant populations. It also includes nods to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival, hot air balloons and the region's logging legacy.

Woodburn hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Independent building at 3 p.m., Thursday, July 27.