Mural Arts Philadelphia
1 Dec 2016
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Michael Rakowitz, Enemy Kitchen, 2003-Present. Cooking workshop and ongoing public performance. Most recently commissioned by Smart Museum of Art for Feast exhibition. Courtesy of the artist.
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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.
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Love Letter by Steve Powers, produced by Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Photo by Adam Wallacavage.
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.