Art Ignites Change: 35 Years of Impact

Convergence © 2019 City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program / Rebecca Rutstein, 27th and South Street. Photo by Steve Weinik.

Art Ignites Change

Thirty Five Years

We started with a spark and a mission to ignite change through the power of public art. Art that empowers communities, transforms spaces, and brings people together.

Art that ignites change in people, in neighborhoods, in our city, and beyond.

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1984

In 1984, the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network was created by former mayor Wilson Goode.

Mayor Good appointed Tim Spencer as executive director of the Anti-Graffiti Network, and later hired artist Jane Golden to work on this program with Philadelphia youth. Golden worked with graffiti writers in order to redirect their energies into constructive public art projects. Mural Arts’ collective mural-making process proves to be a powerful tool for generating dialogue, building relationships, empowering communities, and sparking economic revitalization.

Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN) team painting over graffiti at Broad and Spring Garden streets.

1989

Well-known portrait muralist Kent Twitchell creates Dr. J at 1219 Ridge Avenue, integrating superior artwork with a subject significant to the community. This is the first mural installed using the parachute cloth method.

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Dr. J by Kent Twitchell. Photo by Jack Ramsdale.

1997

Mural Arts Program is created under Mayor Ed Rendell.

Based on the popularity of mural making as part of the Anti Graffiti Network's programs, as well as the community's sense of attachment to the work, Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates was created as a private nonprofit 501(c)(3). Within the municipal government, Mural Arts is transferred from Anti-Graffiti to the Department of Recreation.

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1998

Amidst neighborhood tensions in Grays Ferry, Peace Wall is painted. The mural helps residents find common ground through art, becoming a symbol of hope and unity.

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1998

Meg Saligman paints Common Threads at Broad and Spring Garden Streets. Soaring eight stories above Broad Street, it remains one of the most iconic mural images.

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Common Threads by Meg Saligman

2007

Their Royal Highnesses Charles, the Prince of Wales and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, make a historic visit to Philadelphia and spend the afternoon with Mural Arts.

Photo by Jack Ramsdale

2009

Mural Arts collaborates with internationally-renowned artist Steve Powers on A Love Letter For You, a series of more than 50 rooftop murals and street-level signs along the Market Street corridor in West Philadelphia.

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A Love Letter For You. Photo by Adam Wallacavage.

2010

Light Drift, a collaboration between Mural Arts and artist J. Meejin Yoon, placed a temporary interactive lighting installation along Schuylkill Banks between Market and Chestnut Streets from October 15-17, 2010.

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2013

Mural Arts completes a new mural project, Legendary, by Amber Arts & Design featuring Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, that honors GRAMMY Award winners, The Roots.

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Legendary by Amber Art & Design featuring Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. Photo by Steve Weinik.

2014

Mural Arts celebrates 30 years of participatory public artmaking of Mural Arts and the Anti-Graffiti Network with an exhibition, events, and a special edition book.

Beyond the Paint
Beyond the Paint: Philadelphia’s Mural Arts at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

2015

Open Source, the largest outdoor public art exhibition in Philadelphia, engages artists from across the globe, including JR, Shepard Fairey, SWOON, the Dufala Brothers, Sam Durant, and more.

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2017

In the fall of 2017, Monument Lab presented a guiding central question to more than 20 of the most dynamic contemporary artists working in Philadelphia and around the world: What is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia?

Monument Lab

2019

In a partnership with Mural Arts, artist Amy Sherald brought her work to Center City Philadelphia.

Untitled Amy Sherald Project

2019

Site/Sound: Revealing the Rail Park, a unique festival that combined audio-visual art installations and diverse music performances, all shaped by their surroundings. Above and below the city streets, the installations celebrated and imagined the past, present, and future of Philadelphia’s Rail Park.

Site/Sound: Revealing the Rail Park
Moon Viewing Platform by Nadia Hironaka, Matthew Suib & Eugene Lew, October 5, 2019. Photo by Steve Weinik.

2020

Mural Arts worked with the Department of Public Health to use art as a tool to transmit accurate and reliable public health messages in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, in response to the senseless murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 and the subsequent on-going protests supporting Black Lives Matter (BLM), Mural Arts worked with artist Russell Craig in the creation of a series of projects that honor Black lives in an attempt to combat systemic racism and inequality.

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Crown: Medusa © 2021 City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program / Russell Craig, Municipal Services Building, 1401 JFK Boulevard. Photo by Steve Weinik.

2021

Declaration was conceived by Dwayne Reginald Betts and Titus Kaphar as part of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Reimagining Re-Entry Fellowship, as commentary on the antiquated and unjust Three-fifths Compromise included in the Declaration of Independence. The artists redacted this document to reveal the truths and contradictions of this rule as seen by current American citizens, many of whom are people of color.

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Declaration © 2021 City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program / Dwayne Betts & Titus Kaphar, 150 North Broad Street. Photo by Steve Weinik.