Mural Arts Philadelphia
To date, Mural Arts Philadelphia has created over 4,000 murals in its city.
That is an unbelievable number if all you wanted to do was cover up unsightly walls and brighten a neighbourhood with a splash of colour.
But Philadelphia has a deeper purpose than that—for this organization and the city, murals are not nearly as important as the process that creates them because what they are working to achieve is CHANGE FOR THE BETTER, at a community and individual level.
How do they do it?
It starts with understanding what makes Philadelphia tick, then a lot of active listening, questioning, and discussion among groups of people who may have seen each other as strangers up until that point. These new connections build commonality and eventually inspiration.
With an idea in hand, Mural Arts brings together a team of individuals to express the newfound narrative and mutual respect on an urban wall.
Once the project is complete, they celebrate their accomplishments—the city seems to understand the “JOY principle” that you attract what you celebrate!
“We’re involved in a process of unlocking this potential and reminding people that the city does belong to them, that they have as much of a right to be here as anyone else. This is really about thinking about equity and democracy and who do cities belong to. And how do we use art as a tool of reclamation of an individual life and space? We see people changing individually, and they’re changing the built environment of the city of Philadelphia at the same time.”
In 2024, Mural Arts Philadelphia celebrates 40 years of “transforming urban spaces into canvases of hope and dialogue.” Today, the murals have become part of the city’s civic landscape and a source of pride and inspiration, earning Philadelphia international recognition as the “Mural Capital of the World.”