Monday, May 5, 2008

Mural arts tour

Tonight I hopped onto a trolley w/ the Neshama Group of Haddassah for a Cinco de Mayo happy hour on wheels. We did a group tour with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program that focused mostly on Center City from 7th to 21st and South to Spring Garden. I tried to get pictures of some of them, but all I had was my cell phone, so I apologize in advance for the sub-par quality of the pictures.

This mural, entitled Fantasy Landscape, is near Rittenhouse Square.


This mural is on Callowhill, just north of Broad Street and as you might have guessed, is dedicated to the Girl Scouts of America. It is called Where Girls Go Strong, by Michelle Ortiz.



This is called the Lincoln Legacy Project and is the most expensive mural in the city. It is located on Chestnut near 7th St. It cost over $250,000 to make and is made w/ thousands of glass tiles.

This is an interesting "mural" since it's not the traditional type of mural that is painted onto a building. Instead, these are panels that hang in the windows of the parking garage on 8th Street.

This mural is called Philadelphia Muses and emphasizes the arts in Philadelphia. Turns out that I actually met the artist, Meg Saligman, a few years ago at a Christmas party. Her husband is partners with my cousin. She gave me her card, but I never did try to connect up with her. That was stupid of me.

Then, there were so many others that I either couldn't get good pictures of or came out blurry. All in all, I was amazed to learn there are over 2700 murals in the City of Philadelphia -- more murals than any city in the world. They have different tours throughout the city and I hope to take more tours in the future. I also learned that they have Community Paint Days where you can come out and help paint the murals. Sounds like a fun activity for a Saturday or Sunday.

1 comment:

Lisa said...

V. cool! I have always wanted to take a Mural Arts tour. The Muses mural is my favorite, after all, who wouldn't love a larger than life Meredith Rainey in tights? Oh my...