An Environmental Art Installation Finds a Permanent Home on Georgetown University’s Capitol Campus
The Earth Commons Institute—Georgetown University’s Institute for Environment & Sustainability—now features The River and the Town, a large-scale mural installation by ECo Artist-in-Residence Andrea Limauro. Limauro is an artist, city planner and climate resilience expert as well as a flood resilience planner for the DC Department of Energy and Environment.
Artist Andrea Limauro gives Capitol Campus community members a tour of the new installation, which was unveiled by Georgetown University’s Earth Commons Institute for Earth Month 2026.
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The Earth Commons headquarters in 111 Massachusetts Avenue on Georgetown University’s Capital Campus now features a mural by ECo Artist-in-Residence Andrea Limauro as a permanent installation.
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Located at 111 Massachusetts Avenue, 5th floor, the space shared with the School of Health now displays the mural originally installed along the Georgetown waterfront. The artwork was initially a collaboration between the artist, the Washington Post, the Embassy of Sweden, and the Earth Commons. The 280-square-foot mural explores life, risk and resilience in the Potomac River floodplain to reflect past, present and future climate realities.
Earth Commons Artist-in-Residence and DC city planner Andrea Limauro organizes mural panels previously installed on the Georgetown Waterfront.
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Limauro’s painting, “The River and the Town,” depicts regional landmarks and recognizable landscapes to explore the past and future climate realities of the district.
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“The River and the Town” now has a permanent home in the Capitol Campus headquarters of the Earth Commons, Georgetown University’s Institute for Environment & Sustainability.
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The artist conceived of the painting as a“climate portal” into the and future climate realities, how the DC community has shaped them, and how the climate has shaped the city in return. Initially, the 14-foot-wide, 8-foot-high painting was mounted on a gold-painted ring placed on a pedestal at the Georgetown waterfront, which is a part of the in the Potomac River floodplain that.
The artist’s model for “The River and Town” shows the artwork in miniature. The painting is inspired by a 2018 painting by the artist titled “A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats” that depicts a biblical flood of the DC metropolitan region.
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Sneh Patel (MS-ESM ’25) and Michelle Kolacz (MS-ESM ’25) visit “The River and the Town” on the Georgetown Riverwalk.
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Located on the Georgetown Waterfront, “The River and the Town” is the work of Earth Commons 2025 Artist in Residence Andrea Limauro.
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The mural itself depicts the surrounding landscape, complete with recognizable landmarks, in a state of flooding, which the plain has experienced in the past and whose flood risk is ever increasing alongside the changing climate.
The colors and the art in the mural are an homage to the art, mosaics, maps and wall paintings I saw around me growing up in Italy between Rome and Verona.
Limauro’s artwork includes wildlife in the Potomac River ecosystem. Native species such as carp, large-mouth bass, and blue catfish navigate the painting’s teal waters alongside the invasive northern snakehead.
“The River and the Town” features Georgetown University’s Hilltop and Capitol Campuses and prominent landmarks like the Washington Monument, the Arlington Memorial Bridge, and the National Cathedral. Accompanying narratives explore which sites bear increased risk of destruction because of future flooding, and which have been shaped by flooding in the past dating back to the founding of the district.
Visitors to the Capitol Campus are welcomed to explore the installation during special events, including the Earth Commons’ Earth Month series.
