The Tree is a City (Birds, City Tree, Community Tree, Tree of Honor)

In the fall of 2007, Mural Corps completed The Tree is a City, the first project of the Mural Arts Philadelphia Restored Spaces Initiative, which explores the interconnection between community identity and the environment. Under the creative direction of Mural Arts Program Project Manager Shari Hersh with the assistance of Mural Corps Site Manager Noni Clemens, Mural Arts partnered with Hartranft Elementary School staff, Principal Judith McMonagle, and their community partners to transform an entire city block and turn Hartranft Elementary School into an experiential learning environment for more than 400 students. The project provided educational opportunities across all areas of the curriculum through interaction with both art and garden.

Lead artist Jennie Shanker, who worked with the Harntraft School and community members to help conceive the project commented that, “Nature provides a metaphor for how the community can view itself. The environment is healthy through the interdependence of its elements. This project seeks to help children and adults recognize the nature around them – plants, trees, birds, insects, the elements, etc.”

This innovative project combined traditional mural painting with ceramic relief, stained glass mosaic, metalwork, woodwork, and landscape architecture to create four distinct green spaces designed by landscape architect Anna Forrester: an entry garden; a bamboo garden; a teaching garden consisting of raised beds; an orchard, and habitat plantings; and a playground garden with shade trees and vines. Four major murals were also created including one with an interactive component designed to teach school youth about the environment, as well as sixteen outdoor stone game boards and bird houses that line the community entrance.

Other elements were added to enhance the site, including seating at the front entrance and under the pergola (November 2008); an enclosed outdoor classroom in which the art provides opportunities for measuring, mapping, and alphabet learning and butterfly seating (Winter 2009). Illustrated guides to all of the plantings and street trees plantings were completed in Fall 2008 and Fall 2009, respectively.

Components of the project include:

City Tree (Mural – Back Wall)
The ceramic tree is designed as a tool for interactive education and includes animals, birds, and insects in local trees including hemlock, maple, poplar, ginkgo, oak, and sycamore. This element of the project was made possible through a partnership with Tyler School of Art that enabled Mural Corps high school youth to work with a Tyler class to design, fabricate, and install City Tree over a 6 month period.

Community Tree (Mural – Gym Wall)
This stained glass tree includes the ceramic hands of over 150 community members and youth and represents the growth and strength of the community. The glass tree was designed by YES Mural Corps youth, Lead Artist Jennie Shanker, Ceramic Artist Beverly Fisher, Mural Corps Instructor Marcus Salum, YES Mural Corps youth in partnership with Tyler School of Art.

Tree of Honor (Mural – Front Entrance)
The Tree of Honor is a “Tree of Life”: thriving and beautiful. The entry to the school represents the underground part of the tree where the “seeds” are adorned with the names of the honorees. The Tree of Honor was created with 20 community leaders and acknowledges 50 members of the community. It was designed by Eric Okdeh with the Mural Corps youth and created under the leadership of Desiree Bender and Eric Okdeh in the summer of 2008, serving as summer employment for 10 Mural Corps youth.

Cafetorium Mural (Interior Mural)
This interior mural creates the sensation of being in a natural space while viewing the cityscape in the distance. It was designed by Jennie Shanker and created with over 100 volunteers including: Hartranft teachers, staff, and school youth; Temple University and Tyler School of Art; E3 Mural Corps and E3 center youth; and community partners Education Works and Organizing People Educating Neighbors.

Birdhouses
The birdhouses were designed by Hartranft summer school youth in workshops led by Keir Johnston. The birdhouses encourage bird life at Hartranft while mirroring neighborhood houses. The birdhouses were fabricated by Philacor (Philadelphia Prison System).

Big as a Bug (Kindergarten Space)
The artwork in the space plays with tree and body, scale, proportion, and measurements. Insects are enlarged into chairs and birds surround the space in birdhouses above and in the bamboo garden.

Butterfly Chairs (Kindergarten Space)
The Butterfly Chairs provided seating for 27 children were designed by Jennie Shanker and fabricated by the Graterford Carpentry Shop.

Interactive Gameboards
The sixteen interactive outdoor gameboards were designed and installed by Mural Corps youth under the leadership of Eric Okdeh and Beverly Fisher.