Philadelphia City Murals Project

Watch Video <click here.

As an art educator and art advocate I am highly encouraged by art that encompasses the community and shows the power of art to do powerful positive things for people.  In Philadelphia there was a time when gang graffiti was covering deserted and decaying buildings in the city.  The messages were violent advertisements of territorial boundaries and conquests and warnings.  The city was desperate to do something about the problem.  A group of people came up with the idea of hiring artists to paint murals to cover the graffiti.  In some communities it had seemed to work and in others the graffiti covered the art work again.  But, Philadelphia came up with a community based approach with input from those who lived in the area.  It was a winning idea.  The murals have not been touched, the community is proud of them and protects them .  Now Philadelphia has hundreds of murals thoughout the city, and actually offers tours.  There  are so many it take three different days and three different tours.  I went on one of the tours and was just blown away by the quality of artistry of the murals.  They were done exceedingly well and yet reflected the local areas interest as well.  It is worth the trip to Philadelphia just to go on these tours!  Art can be such a power in our lives, it can change people and communities! Here is the link to the Philadelphia Mural Project.(click on the name)  Think of your community and how it might work there.  This is worth the read, it is far more than painting a picture on the outside of a building.  The artists apply, go through mural training for different techniques, working on a large scale and how to work with the local community to reflect their interest.
An addendum to mural art...I will list other well known programs and artists in a separate post, but do check out this young Portugese Muralist Alexander Farto (click on his name for link).