Remembering Sidney Goodman

Photo by Jack Ramsdale

On Thursday of last week, acclaimed Philadelphia artist Sidney Goodman passed away. He was 77. Today the Inquirer published a fabulous and extensive article about his life and career. One thing that they didn’t mention was the series of projects he worked on with Mural Arts. On three separate occasions, we were privileged to work with Mr. Goodman on mural-sized recreations of his work, Boy With Raised Arm.

In 1990 when the mural was first painted at 40th and Powelton, (pictured above) we were a very young organization known mostly for painting murals of landscapes with house paint and hardware store brushes. Not many of our projects from that early era are noted or remembered. But this one was different.

At Mural Arts we all have business cards with our standard info on the front and a mural of our choice on the reverse. I was looking through a new printing/delivery of cards this morning and ran across the image at the top of this post on one of our Art Education faculty cards. The 1990 mural was blocked by construction years ago, but remains a favorite of faculty, staff and admirers of the program everywhere.

Philadelphia and the world will miss Sidney Goodman and we were lucky to work with him.

To read more about his collaborations with us and the Inquirer article about his life, click here.