People of Point Breeze

People of Point Breeze by artist David McShane was located in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This mural was sponsored by the Welcome America Celebration, to highlight five community neighborhood festivals for the 4th of July weekend in 1998. Each festival neighborhood received a mural to help celebrate and Point Breeze was one of the communities selected. The Point Breeze Performing Arts Center gathered community representatives to plan festivities and the mural theme, which was to show these prominent local artists for ‘the arts for social change’ (there is no existing photo of the original mural). Marian Anderson, who was born and raised a few blocks from the mural site, used her voice to break through color barriers existing at the time. The Heath Brothers – Jimmy, Percy, Albert – also raised in the area, broke new ground as jazz musicians. Mamie Nichols, the long-time activist, was still alive at that time. A fenced in community garden was created below the mural.

Location Note: Mural no longer on view at this location (lost to demolition/redevelopment ca. 2007). Replaced with mural of Mamie Nichols in 2018.