5 things international cities could learn from Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Project.

Photo By Daniel Suchenski

Graffiti, community dysfunction, violence, economic distress, and poverty are just some of the issues that face major cities around the world. Philadelphia, America’s fifth-largest city, prides has come up with an uncommon solution, public art. The mural capital of the world, Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program is the largest public arts program in the United States. Responsible for the creation of over 3,000 murals throughout the city, the program was founded in 1996 as an outgrowth of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network which was established by the City in 1984 to work with youth arrested for graffiti or other minor crimes. The vision of the Anti-graffiti network was to channel the abilities of graffiti artists into projects that would elevate rather than deface the community.

According to the Mural Arts program website, there are a host of benefits that the program has been able to add to the city in the 25 years that it’s been operating. A sampling of five of those benefits include:

1. 66% of ex-offenders return to prison within three years of their release. Through 2011, only 10% of re-entry workers employed by Mural Arts re-offended within a year of their release.
2. Mural Arts provides more than 1500 under-served youth with a positive learning experience every year and boasts a 100% graduation rate among those in the program.
3. Each year Mural Arts employs more than 250 artists, as muralists, assistant artists and instructors, contributing $2.2 million to Philadelphia's creative economy.
4. Mural Arts Projects are one of the top five investments the city can make on commercial corridors, reducing blight, increasing retail sales, and raising property values (Econsult Corporation 2009).
5. Philadelphia’s murals have become big business, with books, audio tour narratives downloadable via cell phone or podcasts, and a variety of themed guided public tours.

In a recent published article entitled ‘The Art of Recovery in Philadelphia: Murals as Instruments of Personal and Community Healing’, authors Evans, Heriza, and White, declare that “Philadelphia, through its Mural Arts Program, is discovering the power of art as an expression of community resilience and a vehicle of personal and community healing. In images that honor the past, freeze present moments, and excite future possibilities, Philadelphia is celebrating the resilience and character of its people and of the City itself. The murals that fill the city of Philadelphia are artifacts of a process of community resilience and recovery.”

The success of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Project has already had lasting effects on other cities in the US. In June 2011, Trenton the capital city of New Jersey completed its first mural as part of its own newly started Trenton Mural Arts Project (TMAP). According to an article from TMAP’s website, “TMAP is led by ArtWorks Trenton and the Trenton Downtown Association/Destination Trenton, with the support of the Capital City Redevelopment Corporation and the City of Trenton, and the assistance of Princeton University and Philadelphia MAP”.

Guided by the philosophy that “Art Saves Lives,” MAP has been extremely successful and serves as a model for similar programs around the world. The Mural Arts Program has essentially created a huge outdoor, geographically distributed museum with the entire city as its canvas. MAP has also become an international training center for mural artists.

References:

http://www.facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/pdf/White/2011_The_Art_of_Recovery_in_Philadelphia.pdf http://philadelphia.about.com/od/attractions/a/Murals-In-Philadelphia.htm http://muralarts.org/ http://trentonmuralartsproject.org/