How Art is Driving Change in Philadelphia

Jane Golden is the Executive Director of Mural Arts in Philadelphia. Jane joined us to talk about how engaging communities is driving positive change in the city and how murals are changing SEPTA spaces to improve the passenger experience.

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Art as a Multitasker

Jane Golden, Executive Director at Mural Arts in Philadelphia stressed the impact that the arts have across the challenges that cities face:

“What I want your listeners to understand is that art can be the quintessential multitasker. Sometimes, we think, okay, these are really beautiful works of public art, and then you have social services. And I always loved it – this is, you know, 15 years ago, people would say to me, “What kind of program is this? Is it art? Is it education? Is it, like, social service? Is it criminal justice?”

It’s everything. Look in – look and sit in the intersection of the public, the private, the social, the civic and the aesthetic, and have art be sort of the lens through which we look at the world. “

Community Engagement & Impact

Jane went on to explain that the key to lasting impact in her work has been deep community engagement:

“The work we did at Anti-Graffiti was deep, because I worked with community organizers. And so, we really learned early on that you go into a community, you go in with not – you shouldn’t have assumptions. Go in with far more questions than answers, and just be prepared to be respectful and listen. 

And I think the reason why the mural movement in Philadelphia has been particularly resilient over all these years, it’s because of the wide range of authors that we shine a light on and work with, that you sort of see a city, a city of authors who can sort of control their narrative through these large-scale works of public art, that exists throughout every single neighborhood of the city of Philadelphia. And that has real power.

And you could spend a zillion dollars whiting out graffiti, and guess what? If you’re not working with people who are writing on walls, it comes back. It’s the same thing. So, the people that we’re working with have an affinity to site. So, they’re connected to wherever we’re working. And so, that’s powerful, and it’s a deterrent.”  

Building a Sustainable Program

Finally, Jane explained how to have sustained, long-term success when building this kind of program:

“One, I believe in partnership, because you can always do a one-off project, but I’m looking for how do you sustain your work over longer periods of time. And so, building relationships between the public and private sector is absolutely critical. 

So, start with 10 people, try to raise the money to do, like, for – think about it for a year. You’re going to test this and you’re going to see what happens. And so, leveraging of, like, both public and private, both capacity and dollars, and then identify a site and say, this is what you’re going to do, raise the money and then test it over six months to a year. That’s what I’d do.”

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