About the Project 

The Room for Growth series of projects includes Wildish, a mural designed and created by Kim Beck at the Conestoga Recreation Center in West Philadelphia. 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 Room For Growth project, artist Kaitlin Pomerantz led her students in the development of a Field Guide of these plants. Beck’s design 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.