Mural Arts in South Philadelphia
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Murals are a key visual feature of Philadelphia building aesthetics. While they bring a sense of color and life to bare walls in the city, they are also moments of community collaboration, often around social issues. Though murals can be created by any kind of organization, Philadelphia Mural Arts Program has helped to create several beautiful works throughout South Philadelphia. As with most public art, the murals in South Philadelphia are often designed and created by the communities in which they exist--refugees worked to create the Southeast by Southeast project, neighborhood children helped establish Playgrounds for Useful knowledge. In this way, murals are both expression and action of social movements within particular communities.
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Southeast by Southeast"Southeast by Southeast began in 2012 with a series of community events and workshops...The goal of this project is to build a safe and supportive community space for immigrant and refugee families to learn about one another, gain access to important social services, and lend their voices to public art projects planned for the neighborhood."
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Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge"Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge is a pilot project that proposes the temporary occupation of a vacant lot at 632 Jackson Street in South Philadelphia, which is transformed into a community space and a strategic hub for cooperative thinking, spatial inventiveness and environmental restoration."
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Watchtowers"Watchtowers sets itself apart from its colorful neighborhood surroundings. At the same time, actual power lines and utility poles disappear into the kaleidoscopic composition. Besides referencing the obsolete prison battlements, the title, Watchtowers, alludes to the mural’s contrasting themes of security, captivity and freedom."
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