Reflecting on 30 Years with Mural Arts Philadelphia

Dear Friends,

I have started this letter about a dozen times.

How do you say goodbye to something that has been such a large part of your life for more than 30 years? How do you put into words what it has meant to work alongside extraordinary artists, young people, neighbors, colleagues, funders, public servants, and so many people who believed, as I do, that art can have a profound impact on the life of our city?

There is no way to capture all of it. So instead, I just want to say thank you—to everyone who made this work possible and made Mural Arts what it is.

When I look back, of course I think about the thousands of walls we transformed. But more than anything, I think about the people.

I think about the artists who took enormous creative risks and trusted us to help bring their ideas to fruition. I think about young people who discovered their voices, I think about community members who invited us into their lives, sharing their memories and histories with us—so many stories that deserved to be seen and remembered. I think about people who had been separated by circumstance sitting together, making something beautiful, and discovering something about one another in the process.

One of my favorite memories is from our Healing Walls project where crime victims, victims’ advocates, and the men in our class at Graterford Prison came together to create a series of murals about the impact of crime. At first, there was no connection or movement as everyone was separated by their individual experience. Painting the murals together provided a link, a platform; a vehicle for people to not just communicate, but to see each other in terms of their commonality and humanity.

I love the final murals at Germantown and Glenwood, but I remember even more vividly the people who created them. We painted together in a large auditorium in the prison, and there was a moment when we were able to overcome the barriers, the divisions, and our differences. It was at that moment the work seemed to belong to everyone.

That is the magic I have been lucky enough to witness over and over again. The ability of art to transform, to connect us, inspire us, and bring us closer. That’s what I will miss the most.

I will miss the energy of walking into a community meeting and not knowing quite what was going to happen. I will miss helping to solve seemingly insurmountable problems. I will miss the outlandish ideas that turned out to be doable, the last-minute crises, the laughter, the dedications, the paint on everyone’s clothes, and the feeling that somehow we were always trying to make something possible that hadn’t existed before.

But I will miss the people most of all.

To the staff, past and present: you gave this work its soul. You challenged me, taught me, sometimes exasperated me, made me laugh, and kept me going. I am deeply proud of what we built together.

To the artists: thank you for your courage and imagination. You taught me that art doesn’t have to sit quietly on a wall. It can ask questions. It can provoke. It can heal. It can bring people together. It can make a city see itself differently.

To our community partners: thank you for opening doors and trusting us with your stories. You reminded me every day that the best public art begins with listening.

And to our funders and supporters: thank you for believing in an idea before it was easy to explain or defend. Your belief gave us the freedom to take risks, to experiment, and to keep imagining what public art could be.

Thirty years is a long time, and yet it has flown by. I have changed enormously during those years, and Philadelphia has changed as well. There have been moments of difficulty and complexity — and times of inspiration, triumph, and joy. There were times when I wondered whether we were asking too much of the creative process — and times when I saw it do things I never thought possible.

So, I leave with a deep conviction in the power of art. Together, we built a city of outdoor walls filled with beautiful images, thought provoking content, and a broad range of authors.

We have created opportunities for people to see one another, to tell their stories, to find their voices, and to imagine that they could have a role in shaping the city they live in.

This is the magic of the work and I hope it lasts forever.

Mural Arts has never really belonged to me. It belongs to the artists, the communities, the young people, the staff, and the thousands of people who have made it what it is. I feel incredibly lucky to have been its steward for these 30 years.

But now it is time for me to step away.

I leave with enormous gratitude, and with the knowledge that the work will continue to teach us, delight us, and surprise us.

Philadelphia has given me an extraordinary life. Thank you for being a part of it.

With love and gratitude,

Jane

P.S.: If you would like to stay in touch, please use goldenj@muralarts.org.

Additional Artwork credits

Top image: The Love Shack dedication, August 27, 2026. Photo by Arekusn.