LOWELL — Following last year’s terrorist attack that saw a truck plow into crowds in Nice, France, Lowell Folk Festival organizers and city officials knew they had to use hard barriers to protect festival attendees from a repeat.

“‘How do we turn this around and make the best of it?'” Henri Marchand, director of the city’s Cultural Affairs & Special Events office, remembered asking himself. “So my thought was, we do murals and other public art, why not paint them?”

This year, the city teamed up with local artists to paint the concrete security blocks and jersey barriers used at all of the major entryways to the festival.

Local artists Ioana Singureanu, Alexandra Derderian and Mary Hart each painted six concrete security blocks, and Bret Weese painted 12 jersey barriers. The city spent about $2,400 in stipends and materials across the projects, which were selected from submitted proposals, Marchand said.

Singureanu, of Windham, N.H., said she felt the blocks needed a textile-like covering to create a softer feel. She made stencils and covered the blocks with repeating patterns reminiscent of Lowell’s multicultural past and present: Grecian keys, Celtic knots, Scottish houndstooth, Southeast Asian-inspired patterns and a Romanian cross-stitch embroidery pattern from her own heritage.

“That was the idea — to remind us that we’re all a quilt of different cultures, and we come together in these beautiful patterns,” said Singureanu, who works at Lowell’s Brush Art Gallery.

On Tuesday, her blocks awaited the festival on Kirk Street with those of Hart, who created a “Magic Garden” of colorful plants and flowers.

Derderian, of Lowell, worked with the Lowell Alliance, incorporating symbols and colors from immigrant cultures in the city and greetings of “welcome” in several languages.

For Derderian’s Armenian heritage, she painted a pomegranate, a symbol of fertility and good fortune. Others included Coqui frogs for Puerto Rico, colorful textile patterns for Guatemala and piri piri peppers for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

For Cambodia, artist Stephanie Lee assisted Derderian with painting a lotus flower over a silhouette of Angkor Wat, set over the red and blue stripes of the Cambodian flag.

Weese, of Tewksbury, described his style as part of the “graffuturism” movement. Drawing inspiration from graffiti but without letters or tags, his work is colorful and abstract.

“What I create, and what is displayed on the jersey barriers, is completely organic or a subconscious flow that grows with every color that is added, creating movement and depth within the piece,” he said.

For Weese, a graphic designer, and studio artists Singureanu and Derderian, it was a fun first experience with public art.

“I thought it would be interesting to do something that was very outside of my comfort zone,” Derderian said.

Most of the painting was done in an area off of the Lowell National Historical Park parking lot on Dutton Street, and caught the eyes of passersby.

Derderian said she enjoyed meeting other artists and community members who stopped to talk when they saw their cultural symbols or to thank them for bringing color to the industrial area.

Marchand said the blocks have drawn attention during the Lowell Summer Music Series and he can’t wait to see how they’re received at the Folk Festival.

He said he hopes to employ more artists to paint more blocks for next year, eventually covering every security block and barrier used at the festival.

Follow Alana Melanson at facebook.com/alana.lowellsun or on Twitter @alanamelanson.