Ile Ife Guardian

Ile Ife Guardian is a mural located in the Harntraft neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 2015, The Village of Arts and Humanities and Mural Arts Philadelphia joined forces to restore this iconic mural, originally designed and created in 1986 by Village founder Lily Yeh alongside neighborhood residents. The Guardian mural adorns The Village’s main arts education building on Germantown Avenue, and serves as a focal point and backdrop to youth arts performances and community engagements in the adjacent Ile Ife Park “Center For Creation.”

With generous funding and support from the Hummingbird Foundation, the City of Philadelphia, The Hankin Group, Seth Sprague Foundation and many individual contributors, the wall was repaired to properly accommodate the artwork, the 3,000 square-foot mural was recreated on mural cloth by artist Felix St. Fort, and the mural was installed by community members who have been trained in mural installation and painting through the Philly Painting project.