Philadelphia and Murals 1

Part of our Christmas family gift was to take a trip to Philadelphia to see The Barnes Collection. While there I had hoped to take a tour of Philly’s incredible murals. I have been saving so many links regarding Philadelphia’s murals that this now seems the time to post them in reference to this trip. Although we didn’t see as many of the murals as I wanted to see, we covered about eight, right around our spectacular Hyatt hotel on Broad Street during a night walking tour after a late arrival and a delicious meal at XIX (Nineteen Restaurant), on the 19th floor with an incredible view overlooking the city.

What we all noticed was that these murals were predominately painted on sides of buildings in parking lots and next to everyday locations such as a neighborhood bodega and a Subway, which often made them easy to overlook until you wonder upon them. Luckily we had a map but even with that some were difficult to find. Before I post my pictures, I think it’s worth giving a little background. Click this Christian Science Monitor article to see how these murals not only help to beautify but they are community builders.

Here are several links to Philadelphia Mural Databases and reference sites:

1. Mural Farm.org lists 1581 and counting

2. On Philadelphia Mural Base, you can search by theme, artists, year, zip code, and area and their interactive map gives a good visual depiction of just how many murals there are in this “City of Murals.”

3. The Mural Arts Explorer gives you an excellent visual preview.

The Mural Arts Program is where most of these murals got their start, placement and funding but there are also many private murals.

•  Philadelphia Hospitality partners with the Mural Arts Program to conduct “If These Walls Could Talk,” interactive tours for tourists, which allows you to paint a section that will become a collective mural someday.

• Here’s an example of collaborative artwork where you don’t have to be a muralist to participate in painting a community mural to commemorate Julian Abele Park’s Farmers Market.

•  In February 2009, “This We Believe,” a citywide initiative was launched to help residents conceptualize and contribute their thoughts for designs for city wide murals through a series of forums. The Murals Arts Program started in 1984 as a component of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network which encourages the positive energy of the destructive nature of street graffiti artists to create artwork to rebuild communities. Since inception, over 25 years ago, over 3,000 public art murals have been painted.

•  Jane Golden, the Director of the Mural Arts Program, has written several books for you to explore these concepts further in With Love Letters and More Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell.

•  You can download your walking and or driving tour, as we did through these links: The Mural Mile and/or copy and paste this into your browser to download the Official Self Guided Mural Map (all the others cost money): files.meetup.com/330312/Philadelphia%20Mural%20Tour%20Map.pdf