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Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge

Mural Arts Philadelphia
Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge Neighborhood Convening, June 29, 2015. 632 Jackson Street. Photo by Steve Weinik. Courtesy of the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge Neighborhood Convening, June 29, 2015. 632 Jackson Street. Photo by Steve Weinik. Courtesy of the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
Community members partake in Mifflin Square Alliance Festival in September 2015, part of Mural Art Program’s Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge. Photo by Steve Weinik. 
Community members partake in Mifflin Square Alliance Festival in September 2015, part of Mural Art Program’s Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge. Photo by Steve Weinik. 
Mifflin Square Alliance Festival in September 2015, part of Mural Art Program’s Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge. Photo by Steve Weinik.
Mifflin Square Alliance Festival in September 2015, part of Mural Art Program’s Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge. Photo by Steve Weinik.
Community members partake in Mifflin Square Alliance Festival in September 2015, part of Mural Art Program’s Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge. Photo by Steve Weinik. 
Community members partake in Mifflin Square Alliance Festival in September 2015, part of Mural Art Program’s Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge. Photo by Steve Weinik. 

This past year, as an outgrowth of a new, Center-funded curator-in-residence program, Mural Arts began working with contemporary art curators for the first time in its history. As part of the Restored Spaces initiative, Boston-based guest curator Lucia Sanroman has invited Cohabitation Strategies (CohStra), an innovative European urban design and performance group, to work with Mural Arts on a community-driven project. CohStra members will take up residence in Philadelphia and, following a period of research and "data-mapping" of various local neighborhoods, will stage "cultural interventions" such as pop-up markets or staged public performances. These interventions will be intended to galvanize and empower community members to work collaboratively with Mural Arts staff on future community art projects. Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge will conclude with a daylong symposium and publication.


*Additional unrestricted funds are added to each grant for general operating support.*
uestions of ractice
Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge Neighborhood Convening, June 29, 2015. 632 Jackson Street. Photo by Steve Weinik. Courtesy of the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
Interview

Questions of Practice: Cohabitation Strategies on the Role of the Arts in Fostering Social Change

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Visiting scholar Kristy Edmunds in conversation with Limor Tomer at The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage on May 28, 2014.
Interview

On Performance Spaces and the Benefits of Failure

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Love Letter by Steve Powers, produced by Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Photo by Zoe Strauss.
Interview

Questions of Practice: Mural Arts' Jane Golden on Seeing Creative Opportunity

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Mifflin Square Alliance Festival in September 2015, part of Mural Art Program’s Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge. Photo by Steve Weinik.
Interview

Questions of Practice: Cohabitation Strategies on Authorship and Community Engagement

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Community members partake in Mifflin Square Alliance Festival in September 2015, part of Mural Art Program’s Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge. Photo by Steve Weinik.
Interview

Questions of Practice: Cohabitation Strategies and Anthony Smyrski on Design in Contemporary Culture

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Recipient
Mural Arts Philadelphia

Mural Arts Philadelphia

Mural Arts Philadelphia (formerly Philadelphia Mural Arts Program) is the largest public art program in the US. Mural Arts engages communities in 50–100 public art projects each year and maintains its growing collection through a restoration initiative. Its core program areas—including art education, community murals, and environmental justice—yield unique, project-based learning opportunities for thousands of youth and adults.

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Explore Connections
Adebunmi Gbadebo and Odili Donald Odita, 2022 Pew Fellows.

Fellow to Fellow: Adebunmi Gbadebo and Odili Donald Odita on Meaning in Materiality 
Interview Practice & Process
Pew Fellows Maia Chao and James Maurelle. Photos by Neal Santos.

Fellow to Fellow: Artists Maia Chao and James Maurelle on Artistic Origins and Why They’ve Made Philadelphia Home
Interview Practice & Process
The Barnes Foundation, Returning to Before, performed as part of William Edmondson: A Monumental Vision exhibition, choreographed by Brendan Fernandes. Photo by Daniel Jackson for Embassy: Interactive.
Choreographer Brendan Fernandes on Dance in Museums
Video Site-Specific Performance
Terence Nance, film still from Swimming in Your Skin Again, 2014. Courtesy of Terence Nance.
Artist Terence Nance on Presenting Film in a Gallery Space
Video Cross-Disciplinary Practices
The Barnes Foundation, Returning to Before, performed as part of William Edmondson: A Monumental Vision exhibition, choreographed by Brendan Fernandes. Photo by Daniel Jackson for Embassy: Interactive.
How Dance Converges with Sculpture in Barnes Foundation Exhibition
Video Site-Specific Performance
Cesar Viveros and Ada Trillo

Fellow to Fellow: Artists Cesar Viveros and Ada Trillo on Art Created from Memory and Cultural Identity
Interview Social & Community-Based Practices
Maeng Wookjae, Secret Forest, 2019; porcelain, gold, paper, wire frame, elastic band, light, sound; 110" x 67" x 67". Photo courtesy of Korea Ceramic Foundation.
The Shape of Time: Korean Art After 1989
Project Grant Exhibitions & Public Interpretation
TOWN, 2022, Theatre Horizon, Norristown, PA. Photo by John C. Hawthorne.
Building a Sense of Belonging through Community-Centered Theater
Essay Social & Community-Based Practices