Digital Divide Mural

Hopeworks has partnered with Mural Arts Philadelphia, marking the highly-regarded collective’s first project across the Delaware River, and bringing together artists from Camden, New Jersey’s arts community with artists in Philly to create Digital Divide Mural.

In this mural, artist Eric Okdeh highlights the digital divide not as a problem or a social ill, but rather as a challenge that can and is being addressed. “[The digital divide] was approached in a positive way, which makes sense,” he said. The design shows an older couple and younger people; images of modern Camden and its bygone industries; its buildings and (yes) bridges but also bald eagles and natural scenes from Petty’s Island. Winding its way through the design: a spiral reminiscent of a DNA double helix connecting each side of the mural, and the divide. Camden was once a great port city, a hub to the rest of the world, and the connection we’re trying to make is that through digital equity, through people once again being able to invest in themselves and their city, it will be that again,” Okdeh said.