Shira Walinsky is an artist and educator in Philadelphia. She has worked with Mural Arts Philadelphia since 2000. She has created over 40 murals across the city. Much of her work centers on portraits of people and maps. She is deeply honored to work with amazing communities throughout Philadelphia! She is inspired by the struggles and vibrant spaces of the city, where history and growth run parallel. In 2012, she developed the Southeast by Southeast storefront space with Melissa Fogg and Miriam Singer. Southeast By Southeast is a community arts space for and with refugee, immigrant and migrant communities in South Philadelphia.

Through the space she created projects and programs that bridge mental health, storytelling, art and learning, poetry and film, citizenship and community building. Since 2019 she has developed six films centering on the stories of Karen from Burma and Bhutanese from Nepal families through the project Making Home Movies. Shira co-teaches at the University of Pennsylvania with Jane Golden. She is a lead artist advisor with the Mural Arts Institute supporting artists in Sant Fe, Portland and sharing our practices at workshops across the globe.