Mural Arts Philadelphia
1 Dec 2016
Mural Arts Philadelphia (formerly Philadelphia Mural Arts Program) has produced nearly 4,000 works of public art since 1984, making it the largest public art program in the US and earning Philadelphia the nickname "City of Murals." Mural Arts projects supported by the Center include Radio Silence, a participatory performance and radio project with artist Michael Rakowitz; a 50-mural "love letter" along an elevated subway line by street artist Stephen Powers; psychylustro, a massive episodic painting along a five-mile stretch of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, by Berlin-based artist Katharina Grosse; and a series of temporary public artworks created by artists Mel Chin, Emeka Ogboh, Kaitlin Pomerantz, Kara Crombie, and Alexander Rosenberg for Monument Lab, which interrogated notions of civic monumentality. In 2019, Mural Arts received a Center Discovery grant to work with sculptor and visual artist Doris Salcedo in an investigation of the possibilities and ethical considerations of collaborating on artistic work with immigrant youth. In 2021, Mural Arts received a Re:imagining Recovery grant to cultivate strategies for recruiting and sustaining long-term relationships with BIPOC artists through work with consultants, staff, artists, curators, and community members to advance diversity and antiracist frameworks in participatory public works,