Reading: A Journey

Reading: A Journey by artists Donald Gensler and Jane Golden is located in the West Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The mural reflects the community’s commitment to education, learning, youth development and family togetherness. The project included two murals on adjacent lots that are thematically and stylistically linked (the other is On the Block by James Burns). Planters were installed in front of each house on the 3900 block of Pennsgrove Street, allowing for the murals’ transformation to permeate the neighborhood.

The wall owner teaches at a local school in Philadelphia. She was very excited about the mural project and wanted it to be an “education” theme. Her granddaughter was the model for the mural.

The book depicts opens possibilities. The child should pass right through the book and into a world of possibilities. These take the form of images that both pass through (the collaged orange fish) and out of (butterflies, balloons, fish, the presidential seal, etc.) the book and into the child’s life.

This mural project was featured in a documentary by renowned filmmaker Nigel Noble that was broadcast nationally on PBS. Prince Charles and wife, Camilla the Dutchess of Cornwall, also visited this site on a 2009 trip to the US.

Location Note: Mural no longer on view at this location (covered by adjacent construction ca. 2024).