Wall Watch

A group of community members met at the Intercultural Family Services building in West Philadelphia to talk about the How We Fish tagline, “Work means different things to different people. What does it mean to you?” At this forum, taking place near one of the educational hubs of the city, work was discussed as an ideal, working for one’s passion. 

Designed to elicit thoughts about the meaning of work from the people of Philadelphia, the How We Fish creative forums are a series of meetings hosted in different neighborhoods around the city. These gatherings are central to Mural Arts’ creative processes; the artists engage in honest conversations with community members and listen to their perspectives in order to create the concept for the physical art.

At the forum, participants created their own representation of the discussion with the artists from Social Impact Studios. They had the opportunity to take part in an interview documenting the forum and all participants left with an expanded knowledge of what work meant to their neighbors. 

The How We Fish mural will be completed in June 2012 at 125 N. 8th Street and will have high visibility and impact, as the wall can be seen from the highway.

Spread the word about Mural Arts’ Creative Forums. Join the conversations and be a part of the early mural process. For more information on when and where the How We Fish Creative Forums are: muralarts.org/calendar 

Sponsored by: Citizens Bank Foundation 

-Laura Edgar

Mural Arts’ studio space at The Gallery at Market East was buzzing with productive energy on Saturday, October 15 as paint day participants gathered to help paint a new mural entitled Finding the Light Within. 

Community members of all ages stood around tables, wearing plastic smocks, to add their own artistic touches to sheets of parachute cloth, which were meticulously mapped out in paint-by-numbers-style by artist James Burns. The painted squares, when completed, will be adhered on the wall in a grid at the mural site: 120 South 30th Street in West Philadelphia.

Burns’ latest mural project, Finding the Light Within, is about the tragic social phenomenon of youth suicide. Philadelphia’s suicide attempt rate among public high school students is 12.9 percent and nearly twice the national average, which is why Mural Arts is uniting Burns with poet and artist Theodore Harris and psychologist Terri Erbacher to facilitate a joint effort to shed light on the critical issue. 

A multidimensional project, Finding the Light Within is more than paint on parachute cloth. A series of community meetings and workshops engaged a broad range of participants, and their personal stories about how their lives have been changed by suicide have informed Burns’ creative design.

Using the power of art to increase awareness and spark conversations about suicide warning signs and prevention, the mural project seeks to create a diverse community of survivors, attempters, and their families and friends that can continue to share resources and support long after summer 2012 when the mural is projected to be finished. 

Come back and visit the Wall Watch Blog for an exclusive interview with the artist about this important project. 

To learn more: http://muralarts.org/findingthelight  

Mary Kate O’Keefe, Intern

Mural Arts continues to explore ways to engage communities, educate young people, and create accessible public art with the Restored Spaces Initiative. This ongoing effort targets commercial corridors, civic spaces, and schools that promote stewardship of the environment. Professional artists partner with Mural Corps art education students (ages 14-21) to develop final works of art using techniques like mural-making, greening, sculptural structures, and mosaic-work.

At Bodine High School in Northern Liberties, artists Eurhi Jones and Beverly Fisher have created a bright and inviting learning space by transforming of the school’s walls with their murals, Reading the Flow. In addition to developing environmental imagery on the school’s exterior through layering paint and mosaic tile, the team worked with the Philadelphia Water Department to improve storm water management with sidewalk planters, slated for installation in spring 2012.  Mural Arts invited nearby residents to participate in this exciting project by helping plant gardens in the school yards and trees on the blocks surrounding the school.

In addition, science classes at Bodine High School have helped to maintain the green space and writing classes have written haiku about their relationships with water, which is a symbol found throughout the murals. The last component of the project, a trellis/bench structure called chainlinkGreen, uses parking lot material that was removed when the gardens were constructed, donated salvaged wood from old local theaters, and donated concrete rubble from numerous local construction sites to create a sanctuary and outdoor classroom space for Bodine. The dedication will be during Mural Arts Month in October.