Cory Stowers

Cory L. Stowers

Is a multi-disciplined creative living in Washington, DC. His resume includes credited projects in the fields of visual art, recorded music, film, scholarly writings and education relating to public art.

In 1994 he founded the 2DK L.A.B an artist-based organization that has contributed to public art through non-profit organizations such as Metro Teen AIDS, Midnight Forum and Words Beats & Life.

Stowers became Art Director of Words Beats & Life in 2007, and soon after began managing a number of the organizations projects. In addition to curriculum development, event planning and creating a range of identity and branding pieces for the organization, Stowers also taught weekly classes on mural installation to students in the organizations after school program.

Stowers was recognized in 2008 by the Washington City Paper as the co-recipient of the Best Family Friendly Mural of the Year Award for his work organizing and executing a mural that wrapped nearly an entire city block and showcased Stowers’s work at the focal point. In 2010, he was awarded WBL’s Employee of the Year Award for his work establishing a student based mural painting team that secured WBL a contract as Lead Artist Consultant for Murals DC, an annual mural program funded by the DC Department of Public Works and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

In 2011 Stowers co-founded and created Art Under Pressure a retail store that caters to the graffiti and skate boarding communities. He stewarded the AUP ship until their relocation to U Street in 2014 and then left the company to form ART B.L.O.C DC, an artist based advocacy group with a focus towards the creation of public art.

Stowers, has served as project manager and lead designer for nineteen publicly commissioned murals between 2007-2017. Stowers, was responsible for selecting the lead artist, training youth artists and managing the installation of the murals.

In 2015 Stowers, conceived and designed Living Time Line: Paul Robeson, the first interactive public mural in the United States. Located at 1351 U Street NW, the massive mural stretches 144 ft w x 35 ft t and includes an interactive time line of selected events from the famous singers life, with digital content embedded in the murals paintings, which the viewer accesses via an Augmented Reality application on their mobile devices. Stowers was awarded a Public Arts Building Communities grant by the DC Commission on the Art and Humanities to create this unique piece of public art.

Stowers has been honored between 2016-2018 as the recipient of, a DCCAH Artist Fellowship Award in the Literary Arts (2016), finalist for the Mayor's Award for Artistic Excellence in both 2016 and 2017, and as the awardee of a DCCAH Artist Fellowship Award in the Visual Arts for 2018.

In 2019 Stowers helped to launch the Digital Media Arts Program at Somerset Prep, teaching Digital Journalism to grades 9-12.

In 2020 he was awarded the Humanities DC Vision Partnership Grant as the Associate Director of DC MURAL. His curated exhibit AeroSoul - Murals For Our Time, utilized the exterior of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library on G Street NW, turning the facade of the building into an interactive experience which told the story of the arrival of Street Art in DC.