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SUPPORT MURAL ARTS!Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports the mission of the Mural Arts Program. Support from individuals, corporations, and foundations is vital to the Mural Arts Program’s ongoing work.

• To Donate to the Mural Arts Program: MURALARTS.ORG/SUPPORT

• Support the Mural Arts Program through United Way Donor Choice #12472

Cover image design: Smyrski Creative Philly Painting ©2012 City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program / Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn Photo by: Steve Weinik

A letter from Jane

Dear Friends, While the pace of work at Mural Arts never really slows, the ambition of our goal “to move the needle” only intensifies as we approach our 30th year. I hope you will join us as we launch our anniversary programs and festivities with Mural Arts Month. There’s more to see and do than ever:

• On October 5, 70 x 7 The Meal, act XXXIV, a performance-based public art project by Lucy + Jorge Orta, will complete the four-month “growing” season of What We Sow, a series of public events around the politics of food production. Chef Marc Vetri has designed the menu for the meal that will be served to more than 900 participants on Independence Mall.

• On November 16, Mural Arts will co-present its first major museum exhibition, Beyond the Paint: Philadelphia’s Mural Arts, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) Hamilton Building. This immersive exhibition will animate the PAFA galleries with a comprehensive installation of archival and documentary materials of selected projects from Mural Arts’ first 30 years, including works by a number of artists who studied at PAFA. It will also include three new installations by artists who both reflect on Mural Arts’ community practice while suggesting future directions for our work.

• And, in the fall, we will begin to take orders on Mural Arts @ 30: Growing Up, Growing Out, and Putting Down Roots, our first major publication since 2006.

While somewhat of a departure from our first two volumes, this book speaks to our organizational values and history and how we have translated them into a generative landscape of practice over three decades.

Our prospects for this anniversary year are also bolstered by reaching our 2013 fundraising targets for both individual giving and Wall Ball, and by the grants that have been awarded to our organizational partners for exciting individual and collaborative projects. We are also encouraged and challenged by a conservation and stewardship grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage to develop a strategic approach to our ever growing—and aging—collections of murals and public art.

As this newsletter goes to press, Mural Arts is inking the final touches on a new strategic plan that will guide us into our fourth decade. Rooted in an organization-wide reflection on values, capacity and opportunities, this document also zeroes in on our evolving artistic goals, our array of extraordinary assets —human and otherwise, the challenges of the city we serve, and our determination to share the belief that art is power.

I look forward to seeing you this fall and winter.

Best,

Jane Golden Executive Director

RJ Rushmore, Marketing & Communications Intern Latanya Vicks, Marketing & Communications Apprentice Steve Weinik, Senior Manager for Digital Media and Technology

Design Chellerose Buscarino, Lead Graphic Designer Leslie Krivo-Kaufman, Graphic Design Intern Smyrski Creative

Photography Tseng Kwong Chi, Alex Peltz, Jack Ramsdale Photography, Michael Reali Photography, Dave Tavani–Photography Apprentice, Steve Weinik–Lead Photographer, Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives, Philadelphia, PA (as part of the Philadelphia Inquirer Collection), Mustafah Abdulaziz, Kevin Brown, Alisa Hathaway, Linda Li, Paul Loftland, Adam Wallacavage, J. Meejin–Yoon MY Studio, Eunice Yu

Director of Communications Jennifer McCreary

Editor in Chief Almaz D. Crowe

Editorial Victoria DeMarco, Marketing & Communications Intern Janice Fisher, Copy Editor Melinda Gervasio, Development Writer Judie Gilmore, Consultant Thora Jacobson, Director, Design Review Amy Johnston, Information & Events Specialist Vanessa Mortillo, Assistant Manager for Individual Gifts and Database Management

Top: Mural dedication of Upward and Onward to Success at KIPP Philadelphia Elementary Academy. Middle: Wall Ball 2013 with honoree and basketball legend Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Jane, Mural Arts Advocates Board Chair Joe Goldblum, and Board Member Tony Schneider. Bottom: Breaking bread at the What We Sow kickoff press conference with Tiffany Baehman (VP and General Manager of the Greater Philadelphia Region for AT&T), Mary Seton Corboy (Founder, Greensgrow Farms), Lucy Orta, Jane, and Gary Steuer (former Chief Cultural Officer for the City of Philadelphia).

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Beyond the Paint: Philadelphia’s Mural Arts at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine ArtsOn view November 15, 2013—April 6, 2014, Beyond the Paint: Philadelphia’s Mural Arts is the first major museum exhibition to present the evolution of our community-engaged art-making over a 30-year arc. To be installed in the first floor galleries of the Hamilton Building at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), the exhibition will position Mural Arts’ artistic and programmatic efforts within the national and international realm of socially engaged arts practices.

The exhibition will present archival and documentary material and images from the earliest years, when the program was part of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network, to the most current Mural Arts Program projects and initiatives, including some still in process. A large mural-making studio will bring mural projects in process to the center of the show, offering the opportunity for people to meet muralists and participants, and contribute to a current project.

In addition, the exhibition highlights the community engagement processes at the heart of Mural Arts’ years of practice with three new works. Temporary Services, based in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Copenhagen and Philadelphia artist duo Megawords will produce new works that amplify and expand the program’s art practice in both form and approach. New York–based artist Josh MacPhee will design a series of street newspapers using content collected from different communities that will be collaboratively screen-printed in a studio in the gallery, installed in the exhibition, and shared with communities in Philadelphia.

The opening weekend will kick off a series of thought-provoking talks, films, and workshops with Who Shapes

Our City?, a panel discussion that will offer Philadelphians a chance to hear from community leaders and to offer opinions on how the arts might figure in shaping Philadelphia’s public spaces moving forward. Additional programming will include family art-making workshops, visits for school groups, artist talks, a book launch, Free Sunday admission throughout the run of the show, and much more.

“We are thrilled to have this opportunity to launch this special anniversary, and humbled by the extraordinary commitment of artists, staffers, community members, and program partners that this exhibition represents. The collaboration between the PAFA staff and our own has been extraordinary—itself an impressive exercise in collective creativity,” says Jane Golden, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

The exhibition has been developed through a collaborative process with Mural Arts’ founder Jane Golden; PAFA Museum director Harry Philbrick; Elizabeth Thomas, who curated the exhibition’s special projects; project manager Netanel Portier; and exhibition coordinator Kristin Hankins. Philadelphia designers Blue Cadet designed the installation.

PRESENTING SPONSOR: The Albert M. Greenfield Foundation FUNDED IN PART BY: Julie and James Alexandre, Joe and Jane Goldblum, the Independence Foundation, and PTS Foundation. The catalogue is funded in part by a grant from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.

South African street artist Freddy Sam designed and installed the wheatpaste mural titled Together Moving Mountains in Kensington in 2013.

Learn more about Beyond the Paint and related programming at pafa.org/beyondthepaint and muralarts.org.

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Featured projects include: A Love Letter For You / Steve Powers; A Monument to Children / Jason Slowik & Eric Okdeh; A Place to Call Home / Ernel Martinez, Damon Reaves & Shira Walinsky; Aqui y Alla / Michelle Angela Ortiz; Behold the Open Door / Jon Laidacker; DESIGN IN MOTION: The Recycling Truck Project / Desireé Bender & Big Picture Students; Dr. J / Kent Twitchell; Family Interrupted / Eric Okdeh; Finding Home / Josh Sarantitis & Kathryn Pannepacker; How to Turn Anything into Something Else / Miss Rockaway Armada; Jackie Robinson / David McShane; Keeping Kids Safe / Jon Laidacker; Legendary: The Roots Mural / Amber Art & Design featuring Tatyana Fazlalizadeh; LIGHT DRIFT / J. Meejin Yoon of MY Studio; Mt. Kilimanjaro / Jane Golden & PAGN; Peace is a Haiku Song / Josh Sarantitis & Parris Stancell; Peace Wall / Jane Golden (restored by Peter Pagast); Personal Melody / HOW and NOSM; Philadelphia Muses / Meg Saligman; Reach High and You Will Go Far / Josh Sarantitis; Reading: A Journey / Donald Gensler; Reading the Flow and chainlinkGREEN / Eurhi Jones, Beverly Fisher, Michael Reali & Scott Shall; Southeast by Southeast / Shira Walinsky & Miriam Singer; Spring / David Guinn (restored by Phillip Adams); Summer of Love / Gabriele Tiberino; Tell Me What You See / James Burns; The Garden / Delia King; The Lunch Truck Project / Shira Walinsky; The Tree is a City / Jennie Shanker & Shari Hersh; Untitled / Shepard Fairey

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Mural Arts @ 30As we usher in our 30th anniversary this fall, we plan to celebrate in typical Mural Arts style by diving head first into the work we love through groundbreaking programs and projects with local talents and world-renowned artists. But we also want to pause and take stock of where we are, where we have come from, and where we are going.

Our organization was born in 1984 in a particular moment of civic optimism when Mayor W. Wilson Goode, determined to end the city’s graffiti epidemic, created what would become the Philadelphia

Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN) and hired Jane Golden to teach advanced art to graffiti writers in a summer program. Having just returned from Los Angeles where she worked as a community muralist, Jane had the skills to both engage with the history and culture of Philadelphia’s graffiti writers and to lead them down an alternative path. Through painting community murals, Jane and her team met block captains and community leaders who had grown accustomed to years of neglect by city agencies. They slowly gained trust by helping tell people’s cherished stories—stories of childhoods in the rural South, adult travels to Africa, and longing for access to nature. It was in those early years of knocking on doors and meeting in church basements that our organization began to shape its core values: earning trust, listening intently, making good on promises, and proving that art can nourish a sense of what is possible.

Throughout the 1990s we continued to work in distressed neighborhoods, but we couldn’t effect the level of community change we craved with a handful of murals and a few determined block captains, so Jane began thinking bigger and building allies within city government. Ed Rendell became mayor in 1992 and restructured PAGN, moving it under the Department of Recreation. With new and creative partners in city government, our organization shifted from an “anti-graffiti” effort to the “pro-art” Mural Arts Program, a public/private partnership complete with a partner nonprofit corporation,

the Mural Arts Advocates. In this format, we expanded our reach, hired staff, launched sustained fundraising efforts, and accelerated the number of projects we produced annually, aligning our ambition for catalytic work with our desire to attract experienced muralists.

In 2000, Mayor John Street took office and we began working within the criminal justice system, developing an innovative partnership with Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services (DHS), the city prison system, and the State Correctional Institution at Graterford. Under Street, Mural Arts was also moved to the Office of Social Services by Managing Director

Estelle Richman, whose vision and belief in our work, along with a significant infusion of resources from DHS, allowed us to work in new settings, to think in terms of programs rather than individual projects, and to develop long-term relationships with youth through sequential education programs. During this time we also got a permanent home at the former residence and studio of the American artist Thomas Eakins. In 2006, we finished renovations and settled permanently into the renamed Lincoln Financial Mural Arts Center at the Eakins House.

When Mayor Michael Nutter took office in 2009, Mural Arts had a solid organizational foundation, respected programs, increasing technical expertise, and tested funding and contractual relationships, and we were poised to partner with him and his talented deputy mayors on their ambitious agendas. We have been honored that many civic leaders, including Anne Marie Ambrose, Michael DiBerardinis, Rina Cutler, Dr. Arthur Evans, Everett Gillison, Dr. Donald Schwarz, and Clarena Tolson, have chosen to partner with us as we create a place for art at the table with community and economic development, sustainability, civic gateways, and design and urbanism through projects like Steve Power’s Love Letter along

SEPTA’s Market-Frankford line, Jacques-Jean Tiziou and Jon Laidacker’s How Philly Moves at the airport, Haas & Hahn’s Philly Painting, the Porch Light Program, and Goldman Properties’ contemporary art installations.

These successful projects, and the capstone projects planned for our anniversary year, are perfect examples of how our work has evolved from traditional community murals into a complex but integrated paradigm of social practice, creative place-making, and community public art. Within this framework, the artwork in its entirety, including the process of its creation, generates a catalyst for social change that works to overcome the myriad challenges that Philadelphia, its citizens, and its leaders face. We will continue to take on these challenges as our own so that we can best meet them with the tools at our disposal—namely art, inspiration, and collective visioning.

Reflecting on the past three decades, we have realized how much our history has shaped our present. In fact, the fascinating intersection we find ourselves at in this moment in time has been shaped by each project we have undertaken, every civic leader that believed and invested in us, and every partner we worked with on a shared vision of a city in which art plays a fundamental role in renewal and activism. Only time will tell what exactly that shared vision will look like, but we now know through 30 years of experience that it will most likely be bright, bold, and beautiful. To 30 more years, Philadelphia. We look forward to painting a different future together.

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Behind the Scenes with Ben VoltaSince 2010, artist Ben Volta has had a broad impact in the world of Mural Arts. Working with our Art Education, Restorative Justice, Community Murals, and Porch Light Programs, he has created collaborative works of public art throughout the city.

Originally from Abington, Pennsylvania, Volta moved to Philadelphia at age 18 to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and later at the University of Pennsylvania. His creativity and collaborative spirit drive his success, and it’s this spirit that he brings to his work with Mural Arts.

Q: What’s your approach to your work?

A: At PAFA, I realized that I didn’t like the old traditional idea of the artist going into the studio and working by himself. I started working with my peers, and with kids at the PAFA museum. I really enjoyed that, and also started a camp for kids in Abington. [What I liked] wasn’t the idea that I was a teacher, but that I was an artist working with artists who were younger than me.

When I graduated, I wanted to stay connected to kids in some way, and I fell into working with art education programs.

Q: Did you come to Mural Arts through our Art Education programming?

A: I didn’t! I had an email blast that I’d send out, and I put Jane Golden on that list. She ran into me and said, “Hey, your emails—I open them and I read them and we want to do something with you. Just send us an idea.” It was kind of a dream thing.

I responded that for years I’d noticed the thin plaster remains of houses that had been torn down. I said I’d love to do something with those houses.

Working with students, we created hundreds of drawings of objects that fill our home and created wallpaper patterns from them. We used things we saw as defining our home. I was nervous, but Mural Arts was so supportive the whole time, and it was really great. [Home That Was, temporary mural, 10th & Vine Streets, see image at top right]

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I threw out an idea: “Wouldn’t it be fun to wrap an El [elevated] train?” Art Education gets back to me and says, “We’re working to get you your El train. What do you want to do?” And it was one of those stunning moments of, “What are we going to do!?”

Q: When will people be able to see and ride the train?

A: The fall. It’s going to be one car, inside and out. The outside will show the beauty of having 100 billion neurons in our brain, with drawings by young people. On the inside we hope to show the process. We’ve created a 45-foot

painted neuron, and we plan to throw paint-filled water balloons on it in the studio!

It will be artwork that people see from the outside that’s beautiful, colorful. . .and when you go in you’ll see that it’s not just drawings; it’s this whole art, science, and biology exploration.

Top: Home That Was ©2010 City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program/Ben Volta. Middle: Ben on site at his mural Written in Wood, with sons Milo and Thor and wife Eilish. Bottom: Design detail from Volta’s new project with Art Education, We Are All Neurons.

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When they’re not supporting the Mural Arts Program with their leadership and generosity, Joe and Jane Goldblum keep plenty busy on Greater Philadelphia’s legal, business, and cultural scenes. In addition to serving as the Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates’ board chair for four years, Joe is the owner and president of G-II Equity Investors, Inc., and serves on boards and committees for organizations such as the Wistar Institute and the Anti-Defamation League. He is also a lifetime woodworker and regularly takes lessons to hone his skills. Jane serves on Mural Arts’ Advisory Council and is a co-founder and partner of Goldblum & Hess, a law firm specializing in immigration. In addition to running her law firm, Jane is a devoted grandmother who loves to lavish attention on her grandsons, Shayne and Owen.

Patron Spotlight: Joe and Jane GoldblumThe Goldblums first heard about Mural Arts when their oldest son, Joshua, had a friend who was studying the program as part of his dissertation work. After a tour in 2008, with Executive Director Jane Golden as the tour guide, everything clicked when, as Joe puts it, “Lawyer Jane then introduced me to Mural Jane.” The Goldblums have been ardent supporters of Mural Arts’ work ever since.

Q: What inspired you to become involved with the Mural Arts Program?

A: Joe: I became actively involved because I had a lot of prior not-for-profit board experience on a national level, and was seeking out a program that made a real difference in the Philadelphia community. I was intrigued by the many facets of Mural Arts—from simple community beautification with public art to the complex progress of community engagement in the conceptualization and execution of murals. The more Jane and I observed how Mural Arts effectively served underserved urban communities and used art and the process of creating art to ignite change, the more we knew this was where we wanted to dedicate our efforts.

Q: What is your fondest experience with Mural Arts?

A: Joe: I love working with Jane Golden and Joan Reilly. This dynamic duo just doesn’t know the meaning of “no,” and they get magnificent and transformative projects done in the face of incredible adversity. They are as entrepreneurial as any team I’ve worked with in many years as a venture investor, and they use their gifts to make Philly a better place for all to live.

Q: Do you have a favorite mural?

A: Joe: We love Philly Painting because it really showcases what the Mural Arts Program is all about. We first got involved with the project when Jane Golden appealed to Jane to handle immigration issues of international artists [Jeroen] Haas and [Dre] Hahn, aka the favela painters, who had transformed a favela in Rio de Janeiro. The concept was to take one of Philadelphia’s most blighted and ignored neighborhoods and use the creation of art to spark change. The completed work is stunningly beautiful and has succeeded in drawing attention to this long-abandoned commercial stretch of North Philadelphia.

Q: What do you want other people to know about Mural Arts?

A: Jane: We would like supporters of Mural Arts to know their money is leveraged exceedingly well to make a real difference in the lives of Philadelphia residents—enriching their communities with public art but, more importantly, starting dialogues designed to address tough urban problems.

Mural Arts Advocates Board Chair Joe Goldblum with wife Jane, Advisory Council

member, at the Iguazu Falls in Brazil.

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International Street Artist Vhils’ VisitWorld-renowned Portuguese street artist Vhils came to Philadelphia in July to visit an Art Education class and create a mural in Center City. The artist is known for creating portraits and cityscapes by either carving into walls or cutting away at layers of posters.

Although he was in town for only a few days between a museum show in Oaxaca, Mexico, and a mural festival in the Azores, Portugal, Vhils found time to work with students in the program. Along with his two assistants, he led a workshop with an emerging muralist class at YESPhilly, where they projected a stencil of one of his portraits onto parachute cloth, and the students collaged torn paper onto the cloth to fill in the image.

As part of the public art project, Vhils wheatpasted a mural on Drury Street on the back of The Corner restaurant (13th and Drury Streets) in Midtown Village. But Vhils does more than just stick posters on walls and call it a day. While in Philadelphia, he and his team first wheatpasted a layer of a photographic collage created from copies of photos found in Temple University Urban Archives’ clippings from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, and then covered that with a layer of white paper. As they precisely cut and tore away at both layers of paper to reveal some of the photos and some of the wall, images of a face, a Phillies logo, and geometric patterns began to pop out from the contrasting colors of the white paper and the photos and wall underneath.

Vhils’ visit is the latest in Mural Arts’ investment to work with artists who began their outdoor art careers by doing street art or graffiti. Around the corner from Vhils’ mural, visitors can also find murals on 13th Street by artists Gaia, Kenny Scharf, and HOW and NOSM.

The photographs Vhils used for the base layer of the piece are on view in The Philadelphia Building at 1315 Walnut Street.

FUNDED BY: City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: Curator Meghan Coleman of Goldman Properties, and Craig Grossman

Vhils’ wheatpaste on the back of The Corner (13th and Drury Streets).

Black Holes Explores Intersection of Art and Science

Multimedia modern artist Ryan McGinness’ new mural at the University City Science Center features layers of “event horizons,” which create a feeling of portals into an infinite inner space, and a strong gravitational pull on the senses. His Black Holes series is an exploration of how ideas of outer space and mind space can intertwine, and his new mural combines the worlds of pop art, science, skateboarding, graphic design, and public art in one piece of vinyl.

For Mural Arts, working with McGinness is both homage to classic public art and muralism, and outreach to entirely new communities and ideas by bridging the gap between the arts and the sciences. Science, particularly complex physics, can be intimidating, but McGinness’ Black Holes invite viewers to dwell in the world of science through visual art.

“We were intrigued by the idea of partnering with the Mural Arts Program because of their demonstrated expertise in using art as a place-making tool,” says Science Center President & CEO Stephen S. Tang, Ph.D., MBA. “Ryan McGinness’ Black Holes series is an interesting blend of art and science that aligns with our vision of the Science Center campus as a place to explore the intersection of art, science, and technology.”

Design detail, courtesy of the artist. Black Holes ©2013 Ryan McGinness/Bridgette Mayer Gallery/City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

The new mural will be dedicated on Friday, October 11, at 5:30 p.m., at the University City Science Center at 3701 Market Street.

FUNDED BY: University City Science Center, Bridgette Mayer Gallery, City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, Wexford Science & Technology: A BioMed Realty Company

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One of the most troubling issues in the United States is the exponential growth of the prison-industrial complex. Mural Arts’ Restorative Justice Program is shining a light on this problem through a new project focused on mass incarceration.

According to Michelle Alexander, a lawyer, civil rights activist, and author, “in less than 30 years, the U.S. penal population exploded from around 300,000 to more than 2 million” in 2010 (The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness). This equates to 753 of every 100,000 Americans incarcerated—the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world.

The pipeline to prison begins at an early age, affected by factors such as literacy and dropout rates, economic status, class, and color/ethnicity. Statistics show that young people who drop out of high school are 63 times more likely to be incarcerated than peers with four-year college degrees (“The Consequences of Dropping Out of High School,” Andrew Sum et al., Center for Labor Market Studies Publications 23, 2009). In Philadelphia, the overall high school graduation rate was only 56 percent in 2010, and the numbers for minorities were even lower: 43 percent for Latino males and 45 percent for African American males, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer (September 3, 2010). The costs of incarceration are daunting as well. In fiscal year 2010, the U.S. taxpayers’ cost for prisons was an estimated $39 billion, and the state of Pennsylvania spent an annual average of $42,339 per inmate, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.

This project raises awareness about mass incarceration through community discussions; illustrates and illuminates

Mass Incarceration Project

Blue Bars, Luis “Suave” Gonzales (SCI Graterford)

the connection to key systems like education, public health, community wellness, and the economy; builds civic participation; and creates a community call to action and public witness. In October and November, a series of large discussion groups, with families, practitioners, academics, inmates, former inmates, individuals, and advocates, will serve as the basis for the visual art portion of this project. The art will

be created by artist and activist Josh MacPhee and muralist Eric Okdeh.

MacPhee, a renowned printmaker and designer, will create six graphic works in response to the workshop feedback. These designs will be strategically placed in locations throughout the city. Veteran muralist Eric Okdeh, who also teaches an art class at the State Correctional Institution at Graterford, is creating a multifaceted mural that reflects the public outcry of concerned citizens, families, elected officials, the incarcerated, and ex-offenders against the punitive solution–based paradigm.

The advisory committee for this project, led by Restorative Justice Program Director Robyn Buseman, is working with numerous partners and lead

consultant Matt Pillischer. An experienced social worker, activist, and attorney, Pillischer is also the director and producer of the documentary Broken on All Sides: Race, Mass Incarceration, and New Visions for the Criminal Justice System in the U.S., and will develop guides for and lead the large-group discussions. The goals of these gatherings are to raise awareness and, ultimately, introduce legislation that will significantly alter mass incarceration rates and explore alternatives to incarceration.

FUNDED BY: Ford Foundation

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Above and Beyond: A Tribute to Social Workers

They provide unfaltering support to our loved ones in hospice care, a social service roadmap for our neighbors seeking help to keep their heat turned on, a safe home for children in need, and tireless advocacy for any and all who have ever felt as if they had lost their voice.

Social workers effect positive changes in the lives of countless individuals, families, and communities each year. Through the new Above and Beyond mural project, Mural Arts honors these courageous and compassionate community builders, with a focus on those who work with youth and families. The mural is installed on the side of Engine 50, Ladder 12 Fire Station, near North Broad Street and Glenwood Avenue in a neighborhood that is home to many of Philadelphia’s social service agencies. Mural Arts partnered with the City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services,

social workers from various social service providers, and community stakeholders in planning the project.

Stories of kinship, hardship, and hope from social workers, foster families and youth in the system, and former youth who have aged out of care were collected and incorporated into the mural’s design. Paint days gave youth, social workers, and families the opportunity to bring color, texture, and movement to their stories. Artist Eric Okdeh, who has completed more than 25 projects for Mural Arts’ Restorative Justice Program, spearheaded the project’s design and finished the installation of the mural over the summer in time for a dedication on Monday, October 1, 2013, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 1325 W. Cambria Street.

FUNDED BY: City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services

Design detail from Okdeh’s new project, Above and Beyond: A Tribute to Social Workers.

Young Friends Make a DifferenceThis year, Mural Arts re-launched our Young Friends group, a collection of young public art lovers and socially conscious citizens who want to make positive change in the city. Since the spring, we’ve danced, grilled, painted, toured, made new friends, and strengthened our networks, all while raising Mural Arts’ profile among our peers. We are excited to create a space where young professionals—both long-time Philadelphians and those new to the city—can be a part of our dual mission to engage in our work and have fun along the way.

To learn more and join our events, visit facebook.com/MuralArtsPhiladelphia.

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A Global Meal Comes to Philly

hybrid plants in the 1950s and are grown for their superior taste, heartiness, and cultural connections to history and place.

What We Sow culminates on October 5 with 70 x 7 The Meal, act XXXIV, a collaboration with internationally renowned Paris-based artists Lucy + Jorge Orta. “We’ll literally be taking art off the walls and putting it into a public space in the form of a table setting. In a sense, the murals on the wall will be found on a table runner and the plates at The Meal,” said Lucy Orta. This 34th staging in the Ortas’ global series will take place at the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, with a menu created by famed chef Marc Vetri and catered by Cescaphe Event Group. The Meal will draw participants not only to an act of communal dining but also into an important food and environmental issue and a work of contemporary art.

Participants are invited to 70 x 7 The Meal through Mural Arts’ partner organizations with the goal of engaging a diverse cross-section of the city in this unique art experience. Of the estimated 904 seats at the two-block-long table, approximately one-quarter will be given to residents of Philadelphia through a lottery system. The Meal will reach a citywide audience through partnerships with select restaurants and organizations that feed the hungry who will host their own heirloom meals on October 5.

FUNDED BY: William Penn Foundation, PNC Arts Alive, AT&T

Celtuce, Spitzenberg, yautía, Black Krim, and Dabinett.

These are just a few of the heirloom plant names that resonated throughout Philadelphia this summer as part of the What We Sow project. From June through September 2013, Mural Arts hosted and collaborated with partner organizations to provide opportunities for the Philadelphia community to explore the world of heirloom foods.

“As long as we have heirloom sources of genetic plant material, we can continue to have food for people. It’s as simple as that,” said Ben Wenk of Three Springs Fruit Farm, a graduate of Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. Heirloom plants are those bred prior to the rise of genetically modified

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Restored Spaces: Mastery Charter, Shoemaker Campus & Conestoga

The Restored Spaces Initiative continues to transform communities through an art-based approach that results in reimagined, sustainable public spaces. A new, two-year project, using Mastery Charter School – Shoemaker Campus in Conestoga, West Philadelphia, as its headquarters, is centered on the immediate community’s needs and desires that focus on environmental justice. One of the top goals is for neighbors, teachers, and students to break down traditional hierarchical structures and collaborate on the planned greening of their shared space. These conversations will address issues such as beautifying individual blocks, attacking blight, and how art can be used to make sustainable change.

In addition to management by Restored Spaces Founder Shari Hersh, the project is guided by partner Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national organization that focuses on creating parks and gardens, building playgrounds, and reserving natural land for residents in urban settings. The large-scale environmental art transformations will require work with utility companies,

community development corporations, and the artists, Kaitlin Pomerantz and Beverly Fisher. Both Pomerantz and Fisher have extensive experience working with communities on art-based social practice projects; Pomerantz has engaged Mastery Charter–Shoemaker students in the “Seed Wall” project in which they learn about, draw, and grow plants; make paper; and create living murals with seed-scattering wheatpastes. After consulting with the community, Fisher is transforming the exterior of a local day care center using abstract representations of the structure of plants and other foliage, and working with teens to make other public art.

The master plan for the school and immediate neighborhood will be complete by December 2013, after which the second phase of planning and implementation will begin.

FUNDED BY: City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services, PTS Foundation, Surdna Foundation

Top Left: A youth artist showcases a garden journal, made from recycled paper during a workshop with Kaitlin Pomerantz. Bottom Left: Artist Beverly Fisher has transformed the facade of a local day care. Right: Pomerantz and students created colorful designs made from paper and seeds that, when released to the earth below, will grow various foliage.

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Since its beginnings in the 1980s, the Art Education Department at Mural Arts has partnered with countless schools and nonprofit organizations to serve youth in underserved neighborhoods.

The growing popularity of the program is no secret, but Art Education has chosen to make the site selection process more formal, transparent, and competitive. Yolanda Wisher, Director of Art Education, said her team is emphasizing “more give and take” and longer-term engagement in its selection of Partner Sites for 2013–2015.

During the site application process, Art Education staff visited potential sites and interviewed site staff to determine compatibility with Mural Arts’ goals and mission statement. Partner sites were chosen based on their physical space, location, and staff capacity. Along with a greater emphasis on building mutual partnerships than in previous years, Program Manager Michael Reback added, another objective was to include a more “diverse group of audiences.”

After an extensive review process, seven new Art Education sites have been confirmed for 2013–2015: The Attic Youth Center, Centro Nueva Creación, Congreso at Edison High School, El Centro de Estudiantes, The Lenfest Center,

Art Education, Step by Step

Children Get Art

In spring 2013, Mural Arts published its first Art Education curriculum guides aimed at students ages 10-18 years old to accompany two recently completed high-profile mural projects. Roots 101 and Peace is a Haiku Song 101 are collaborative efforts between office staff and teaching artists; each guide consists of biographical sketches, mural project background, and four to six art and writing activities that engage students through the realm of public art and mixed media.

The curricula include an eclectic mix of art-making and literary projects, from sketching prototypes of musical inventions to creating self-portraits on vinyl. The common threads connecting each lesson plan are brainstorming, team building, and one or more specific art skills, including profile drawing, color composition, and photography.

Art Education Director Yolanda Wisher hopes the guides serve as a springboard for extending art education beyond the classroom and that homeschool tutors, parents, afterschool leaders, and other youth workers use them.

“These guides use current public art projects to engage students instead of looking to historic works such as Mona Lisa and simply asking discussion questions,”

she says. The content transcends traditional art education by encouraging kids to be highly

conceptual thinkers and to collaborate with others, two key attributes of the mural-making process. By combining

art-making and technique-building with big-picture ideas and collaborative

projects, the guides help students walk away with not only enriched portfolios, but also

empowered minds.

The third curriculum guide, A2O Afterschool: Environmental Art Activities for Afterschool

Youth, was published in August 2013 in collaboration with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation. The A2O program hosts twice-weekly art classes at five recreation centers across Philadelphia. From fall 2012 to spring 2013, nine teaching artists implemented activities that engaged the community in projects with an environmental or sustainability focus.

All three curriculum guides are available for download at muralarts.org/programs/curriculum-guides.

Mastery Charter School – Shoemaker Campus, and Morton McMichael School. Mural Arts is also proud to welcome back six returning partners: Asian Arts Initiative, E3 West, Sayre High School, Southeast by Southeast, Waring Elementary School, and YESPhilly.

These sites include more middle schools, in hopes of piquing interest in arts media, technology, and careers at an even earlier age, and locations that serve a diverse audience, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth. Staff members aim to create a more formal partnership with each site by including site teachers and staff in the program through professional development and community workshops created by Art Education faculty.

THE ART EDUCATION DEPARTMENT IS FUNDED BY: City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services, City of Philadelphia Streets Department, Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, City of Philadelphia Department of Parks & Recreation, Philadelphia Water Department, Philadelphia Youth Network, ACE Group, Anonymous (2), The Christopher Ludwick Foundation, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, FAO Schwarz Family Foundation, Forrest and Frances Lattner Foundation, Graham Partners, Heuer Foundation, Hummingbird Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fund of The Philadelphia Foundation, Lincoln Financial Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The Pew Charitable Trusts, PTS Foundation, Surdna Foundation, TD Charitable Foundation, Virginia and Harvey Kimmel Arts Education Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation

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Donor Spotlight: AT&TMural Arts has entered into an exciting partnership with AT&T for the first time. Through its philanthropic initiatives, AT&T has a long history of supporting projects that create learning

opportunities; promote academic and economic achievement; and address community needs. AT&T is committed to advancing education, strengthening communities, and improving lives, and in 2012, more than $131 million was contributed through corporate-, employee-, and AT&T Foundation–giving programs.

Through our partnership, AT&T has found ways to connect the Philadelphia community to our What We Sow project, a series of events designed to raise awareness about heirloom foods culminating in a meal staged as performance art. AT&T provided the international artist duo Lucy + Jorge Orta with a Samsung tablet and camera to catalogue their work on the project in France and keep followers in Philadelphia—and around the world—updated through social media. Mural Arts staff is also using AT&T tablets at project events throughout the summer to show videos that highlight Mural Arts’ work.

“We want to support and be involved with organizations like Mural Arts that truly make a difference in this community. From the thousands of murals that tell the city’s story in such a

unique way and the programs that engage and challenge at-risk children, to empowering local community leaders by involving them in the mural-making process, the Mural Arts Program is definitely doing that. We’re proud to be a small part of this,” says Tiffany Baehman, AT&T’s Vice President and General Manager of the Greater Philadelphia Region.

AT&T is investing heavily in their network in the greater Philadelphia area to make

sure customers have the best possible network experience. Last September, AT&T turned on its 4G LTE network in Philadelphia, bringing customers the latest generation of wireless network technology, and delivering mobile Internet speeds up to ten times faster than 3G. This means customers can do the things they want to do like stream, upload, download and game even faster than before.

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Tiffany Baehman, Vice President & General

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for AT&T

15M U R A L A R T S . O R G

A Treasure in Our Midst

“We the Youth [Haring, Keith. 1987. Philadelphia, PA] is [Haring’s] only collaborative public mural remaining intact and on its original site.” — Julia Gruen, Executive Director, Keith Haring Foundation

Located at 22nd & Ellsworth Streets, We the Youth was created in 1987 in collaboration with CityKids of New York and Brandywine Workshop. With its limned, primary-colored beauty, lyrical characters, and childlike innocence, We the Youth is quintessential Keith Haring. In the work and on the wall, Haring’s artistic vision—his energy, life, and spirit—serves as his testimony.

Haring believed that art should be accessible to everyone, which is a core tenet of Mural Arts’ philosophy. Gently, heroically, quietly, vibrantly, his evocative public artwork—beloved, now iconic—has enlivened a South Philadelphia streetscape for more than a quarter of a century. Recent damage to the wall, however, has prompted Mural Arts, with generous funding and support from the Keith Haring

Foundation, to engage in intensive restoration of this contemporary work of art.

For artist Kim Alsbrooks, restoring the mural is an opportunity to pay tribute to an iconic artist. “I am very grateful to be able to restore this beautiful, important work of Haring’s, an artist I have admired for almost 30 years and one who means so much to so many people,” she said.

Using archival photos provided by the Foundation, Alsbrooks has devised an artistic plan for the restoration that is true to the original design and color palette Keith Haring created. Along with the restoration of the mural, the adjacent garden space is undergoing a renovation overseen by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and funded by the Keith Haring Foundation. Together, these improvements will transform the space into a vibrant, inviting environment for the neighborhood to enjoy. A re-dedication will take place on Saturday, November 2, from 1-3 p.m.

FUNDED BY: The Keith Haring Foundation

Haring paints the We the Youth mural with community members in South Philadelphia. Photographs by Tseng Kwong Chi, ©1987 Muna Tseng Dance Projects, Inc. New York. Keith Haring artwork ©Keith Haring Foundation.

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