front cover of More Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell
More Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell
Jane Golden
Temple University Press, 2006
More than twenty years ago, a New Jersey artist started a project for the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network that encouraged young people to paint murals on a few buildings around the city. Jane Golden could not have known that the Mural Arts Program (MAP) would become the nation's largest public art program and a model for programs throughout the country. With more than 2600 murals throughout Philadelphia, the program has brightened the lives of countless residents and tourists while providing a creative outlet for an astounding array of artists. MAP now works with more than 3000 students around the city, engaging them in a curriculum that teaches not only artistic skills but civic engagement and personal responsibility. In this sequel to the bestselling Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell, published in 2002, More Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell shares with the earlier work its beautiful color photography, along with profiles of the artists. Featured here is the remarkable story of an unlikely artistic collaboration—between boys who live in a residential facility, a community in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, and men who are incarcerated in a maximum-security state correctional facility. The 1/8 of a mile long mural they created, about balanced and restorative justice, was intended to help the young men give something back to a community they had harmed and help the community wrestle with issues around crime and violence. In the process of creating the mural, it became a life-changing experience for all involved. By recounting this story and the many others behind the works of art, More Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell is as inspirational as it is beautiful.
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front cover of Philadelphia Murals & Stories They Tell
Philadelphia Murals & Stories They Tell
Jane Golden
Temple University Press, 2002
In June 1984, Jane Golden, a young muralist from Margate, New Jersey, headed up a project that was originally planned as a six-week youth program in the fledgling Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network. This small exercise in fighting graffiti grew into the most vibrant public art project in the United States. Led by Golden and dozens of artists, neighborhood residents, and volunteers, the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program has adorned the city with over two thousand murals. In the process, this vibrant art, painted mostly on city walls, helped to change the look of the city, creating an enduring legacy in all of the neighborhoods in which the murals were added.In this lavishly illustrated chronicle of the Mural Arts Program, you will see the murals in all of their beauty and learn about their inspiring legacies in neighborhoods throughout the city. Go behind the scenes to find out how murals are made and why the process is as much an art of diplomacy and consensus building as paint and perspective. Discover through pictures and text how murals give communities a new way to define themselves, not in terms of the streets and intersections that border them, but in terms of the people who came together to create something of dramatic beauty.
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