Mural Arts

In my summer class we went to Philadelphia were we had a chance to learn about the mural arts program. We learned that in the beginning, 1984, the program was not simply for the purpose of  putting up murals in the city. Its first purpose was to  be an Anti-Graffiti program to "fix" the graffiti problem in the city. This was an effort started by Mayor Wilson Goode. Jane Golden, a mural artist, was asked to be a part of this program and allowed the graffiti artist to work with her because she saw that they really did have talent. The city really needed something for these artist to do and what Jane turned it into was just that. With the murals that they were putting up the are able to touch the hearts of these young people in the city, and even those hearts of their family. The program is still going strong today. I think it is important for this program to stat because they are removing art from a lot of the schools in the city. Kids need art in the early stages of their life so that they can develop. Art teaches children different ways of thinking and problem solving skills that can be applied to other subjects. It is a way to express yourself without words. If we don't have more programs like this and remove art from schools there will be more graffiti in the city.

Mural Arts Program of Philadelphia