Wildish

Wildish was designed and created by Kim Beck at the Conestoga Recreation Center in West Philadelphia as part of the Room for Growth series of projects. The mural features a “wildish” assortment of plants from the surrounding neighborhood. Over the course of the project, students from the adjacent Mastery Charter School learned that many of these plants – often dismissed as weeds – have much deeper lineage as food, medicine and more.

As a part of the project, artist Kaitlin Pomerantz led her students in the development of a Field Guide of these plants. Beck’s design for the mural was guided and inspired by this Field Guide. The final mural incorporates the research and artwork of Mural Arts students, and serves as a cornerstone to a larger initiative to modernize the Conestoga Recreation Center.

About Room For Growth

The Environmental Justice Initiative is a series of public art and community outreach projects along commercial corridors in civic spaces and on school campuses that promote stewardship of the environment.

Environmental Justice projects utilize a participatory process that begins with a master plan and vision statement determined collaboratively by the community, youth and stakeholders. Artists and designers then lead workshops to create and produce the artistic and design pieces over several years. The resulting artworks blend mural-making, greening, sculpture, and landscape architecture to shape the urban environment into a cohesive space envisioned by stakeholders.

The summer of 2013 marked the launch of Mural Arts’ Environmental Justice project focused on the greening and beautification of several corridors surrounding Conestoga Recreation Center and Mastery Charter Shoemaker Campus. The project was undertaken in conjunction with storm water management and park infrastructure plans from the Trust for Public Land and the Philadelphia Water Department. In 2006, Shoemaker was identified as the second most violent school in Philadelphia. Mastery Charter School was invited to turn the school around by the Philadelphia School District. Mastery’s Shoemaker Campus has become a vibrant community partner where academic achievement is prioritized, violence is nonexistent (decreased by 90%) and student retention is above 96%. Local Mastery Charter Shoemaker Campus has been a leader in the community transformation of educational opportunity and has an enduring commitment to neighborhood service. In addition, Keep Philadelphia Beautiful has partnered to enhance neighborhood clean-ups and recycling efforts in the school among other activities. The project was guided by a robust and caring group of residents in the area that have a long tradition of civic engagement.

Community vision for the project

Master planning for art was led by Leah Murphy from Interface Studio with Shari Hersh, Environmental Justice creator and project manager. The master plan represents the community’s reflections on and vision for the site. After completing the Trust for Public Land participatory planning process in fall 2013, artistic opportunities for art on the Parks and Recreation site were integrated and prioritized in the master plan. The related projects evolved over several years.