Restored Spaces
Completion Date: September 2011
Artist: Beverly Fisher, Eurhi Jones, Scott Shall
Location: 1101 North 4th Street
Photo credit: Mike Reali
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 Arts’ art education students 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 the school’s walls with their mural project, 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 also 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, wood that was salvaged and donated from old local theaters, and concrete rubble donated from numerous local construction sites to create a sanctuary and outdoor classroom space for Bodine.
“The students were able to see their hard work come together when the benches and trellises were being constructed and they really took pride in their work,” said project manager Kate Jacobi.
Sponsored by: Department of Human Services, Philadelphia Water Department, PTS Foundation, and Surdna Foundation
