Sixteen artists will paint live murals across downtown Ann Arbor on Friday, Sept. 11, during the free Street Art Encounter.

The Main Street Area Association (MSAA) announced the event's return for a second year. The daylong festival runs from noon to 8 p.m. and includes live music, in-street dining, youth activities and community booths alongside the mural painting.

Artists come from across Michigan and beyond. Local participants include Samuel Turner, Elizabeth Ann Darling and Polina Poplavsky of Ann Arbor, plus Sierra Fancher and Benjamin Laman of Ypsilanti. Others travel from Detroit, Saginaw, Flint, Kalamazoo, Bay City, Fenton, Farmington Hills, South Lyon and Vernon.

"It was a great chance to see so many talented people making art right in the street and witness the final creations on giant murals," Rich Retyi, communications and marketing manager for the Ann Arbor District Library, said in the MSAA announcement about the library's experience as a returning sponsor. "We're looking forward to seeing what the artists create this year."

MSAA Executive Director Ashley Schafer said the event is about bringing people together through art and that the community response last year drove the decision to bring it back.

The Ann Arbor Art Center (A2AC) will run a community mural wall activation from noon to 5 p.m. Staff will paint the inside of the Art Center's front ceramics studio windows along W. Liberty Street white, creating a blank canvas.

Kelsey Hofe, A2AC's education events manager, and her team will provide window paint for passersby to add their own artwork on the outside of the glass, along with chalk for sidewalk art. The finished community mural will stay on display overnight with studio lights left on.

Admission is free. More information is available at mainstreetannarbor.org.