Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates

Programs: Restoration and stewardship - for the past 30 years, mural arts has worked with communities to create more than 3,600 murals, a collection that has made philadelphia "the mural capital of the world. " production of new art continues, but we have also begun to consider our role in restoring, decommissioning, or replacing aging works. Murals have a lifespan of about 15 years before they begin to peel and fade, transitioning from beautification to blight. It is troubling to watch deterioration, because it undermines the intent of the projects: to uplift, signal momentum, and catalyze economic development. Though the process of making a project typically lasts only a year, our commitment to stakeholders--both residents and artists--continues. We honor that commitment through responsible stewardship.

art education - the mural arts program's art education program currently provides more than 1,000 underserved philadelphia youth with access to quality out-of-school art education courses at 20 school and community sites. Our program builds its curriculum on a 21st century skills framework, an approach to education that integrates thematically-relevant content, opportunities for critical and creative thinking, learning around technology, and development of life skills. As they develop new competencies, participants collaborate with communities across the city to bring their talents and perspectives to major mural projects. The program offers five tracks: foundations and innovations, serving beginner youth ages 10 to 21; emerging muralists, an advanced program serving youth ages 14 to 21; restorative justice youth, a beginner program tailored to a severely at-risk and transient population; start up corps, an entrepreneurship-themed program for youth ages 14 to 21; and a20, an environmentally-themed program for youth ages 10 to 21.

public outreach - mural arts hosts free public lectures, workshops, exhibits, community paint days, mural dedications, and more. We communicate about our work and new projects through email updates to 15,000 supporters and newsletters for more than 10,000 subscribers. We also offer a variety of guided mural tours to over 20,000 people each year, as well as self-guided audio tours that can be downloaded from our website. The tours include details about our early history and core programs, mural-making techniques, and stories about specific murals. Some are delivered in partnership with local businesses. Others are delivered in partnership with local cultural organizations, such as the african american iconic images tour, which connects a tour of a curated selection of images with admission to the african american museum in philadelphia. In addition to broadening access to our work, our tours program aims to introduce patrons to businesses and institutions in off-the-beaten path neighborhoods, cultivate new donors, and create a stable revenue stream for mural arts.

guild re-entry program: - mural arts' guild re-entry program is an innovative workforce development model for returning citizens and young adults on probation. The guild, developed in collaboration with the city's youth violence reduction partnership (yvrp) and the philadelphia prison system (pps), provides a supportive arts-based learning environment where participants can build practical skills through training with professional instructors, apprenticeships with community public art projects, and mentorship from our jobs opportunities specialist. Participants learn skills and gain work experience in carpentry, construction, maintenance, tiling, scaffolding, wall repair, landscaping, and lot cleaning. To ensure that our participants are making needed and meaningful contributions to the city, we prioritize sites of civic significance, like recreation centers and cultural venues. The guild's overarching goals are simple, to: 1) decrease the number of individuals returning to custody while in the program and six months after. The guild's one-year recidivism rate is 10%, compared to the statewide rate of 35%. 2) increase employment-related skills and self-image among participants while assisting in finding employment, job training or other educational opportunities. The guild serves approximately 36 individuals per year. However, funding for this work is scarce and unreliable. Expanded support from the city will be critical to our ability to sustain and expand the guild program in fy17 as we look to secure new sources of local and national support.