Sing Because It Is Heard

Sing Because It Is Heard by Betsy Casañas on the Spring Garden Street Bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a collaboration between Mural Arts Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Mantua Civic Association.

The Spring Garden Street Bridge holds special significance to Mural Arts Philadelphia. In 1984, Mayor Wilson Goode hired artist Jane Golden to paint a mural on the bridge. No one knew it at the time, but this was the first work created by what would someday become the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Now, more than 30 years later, Mural Arts and artist Betsy Casañas are re-imagining the iconic gateway between Center City and Mantua.

The mural blossoms with more than 6000 tulips, a historic symbol of growth and development in Mantua. The design also incorporates a talavera Mexican tile pattern, and features vibrant images drawn from traditional Mexican muralism. The talavera motif was inspired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s fall 2016 exhibition, Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910–1950.

This mural will greet travelers to both sides of the bridge for many years to come.