The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program is an anti-graffiti mural program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1986 and directed by Jane Golden as a division of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network. Its roots began in a 1984 meeting between Tim Spencer and Golden. Golden asked to run a program within the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network. Spencer envisioned a program that would entice kids towards other arts and crafts, but Golden envisioned what is now the current Mural Arts Program.
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History
In 1984, Golden met with Tim Spencer, who was head of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network, in hopes of creating a program under the umbrella project. Spencer had originally envisioned a program that would rehabilitate graffiti artists and into other arts and crafts. Golden's vision won out and the Mural Arts Program was created. The Mural Arts Program works with community groups to educate and involve children in arts and in creation of murals throughout the city.
In 1986, the Mural Arts Project, headed by artist Jane Golden, was founded as a division of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network. In 1991, Philadelphia was awarded the Innovations in American Government Award due to the success of the Mural Arts Project and Mural Arts Program in surrounding communities. In 1996, the Mural Arts Project was split off into a separate program and placed under the umbrella of the Philadelphia Recreation Department.
In 1996, the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network was merged into the Philadelphia Recreation Department and the Mural Arts Program was elevated as an independent entity. The Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates was founded as a nonprofit corporation to raise funds for the Mural Arts Program. Tim Spencer, who founded of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network, died that same year.
In 1998, mural artists Meg Saligman creates "Common Threads" at Broad and Spring Garden Streets, this work is commenting on the shared history of humanity through the juxtaposition of classical sculptural forms and the forms of local high school students from the Philadlephia
In 2007, Their Royal Highnesses Charles,The Prince of Whales and his wife, Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall, visited the Donald Gensler Mural, "Reading: A Journey ", at 40th and Pennsgrove Streets.There purpose of the visit to the mural was to understand how the program and the murals inspired regeneration in the West Philadelphia Neighbhorhood and was interested in even trying to recreate the program in London
Legacy
The Mural Arts Program is responsible for the largest mural painted in Philadelphia at 600 feet (180 m) in length. Titled History of Immigration, the mural displays settlers of different ethnicities who have settled in Philadelphia over time. The average mural painted by the program is approximately the height of a three-story row house and 35 feet (11 m) wide. The average cost of each mural is $10,000–$15,000, which includes artist commission and supplies.
The program is currently one of Philadelphia's largest employers of artists, employing over 300 artists a year. The Mural Arts Program also hires prosecuted graffiti vandals at a rate of over 100 per year and involves them with the creation of murals around Philadelphia. Currently, the program employs 36 former graffiti artists as staff members on permanent payroll and serves more than 300 children a year with arts programs. During the 2001–2004 Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, the Mural Arts Program had painted over 600 murals around Philadelphia. In February 2006, the city of Watertown, New York asked Jane Golden to speak in hopes of creating a similar program in their community.