Mural Project

This summer volunteers and members of the North Philadelphia neighborhoods came together to paint a mural at the Cecil B Moore Recreation Center Playground at 22nd and Lehigh Avenue. This grass roots project began with childhood friend, Teyona Jackson, who met a group of girls called the P.I.N.K. Ladies at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she gave educational tours. They invited her to their Recreation Center where she felt inspired by the positive energy involved in the youth mentorship program. Interested in pursuing Arts Management, Jackson used this opportunity to engage her skillset. She sent proposals and pull together sponsors of supplies and invited me on the team as Lead Artist.

Seeking to build trust and respect with the residents of the area we focused on the use of educational workshops, meetings at the community center, and social networking along with cooperative learning to ensure participation toward this mural's success. The community's ideas stimulated discussion and interaction among the neighborhood and a consensus was reached about the mural's theme.Working with the guidelines to incorporate singer and song writer Jill Scott in the mural who grew up around this area along with some of the children's recreational activities at the playground the mural design was brought to life. The images depict active children having fun and feeling safe. I wish to provide the possibility for more people to have pride toward their public art and I appreciate everyone that came out to help build this mural. The wide range of stories, emotions and walks of life I observed converging at the recreation center playground will now have more to admire about their environment. This work of art draws attention to universal human commonalities and helps make sense of our motives and how we relate to each other.

I became a part of the mural project because I wanted to use this opportunity to learn more by becoming involved in teaching. The key to my philosophy is that we can all use critical thinking to connect and help each other create something larger than ourselves. Reflecting upon my academic career it is clear that many of my mentors have helped develop my ability to create, utilize resources, and articulate ideas. Aspiring toward self improvement, I believe that a good teacher is a good student. My goal for this mural project is to inspire others as my mentors did for me.

Over the course of 14 weeks our education team brought on friends DonChristian Jones, Eve Hall, Kanids Hutcherson, and Lanita Sims as assistant artist and dedicated supporters. This system of students teaching the younger ones was encouraging for us to be able to innovate a way for us to utilize our skills in an uplifting way.With high standards for visual clarity the team mixed a variety of vibrant paint colors and researched efficient use of materials to proceed with mural making. Projecting digital figures onto scaled parachute cloth we developed a paint-by-numbers aesthetics in hopes of combing all proficiency levels and increase observations from collaborative learning as various volunteers were be able to tackle more complex problems.We overcame the obstacle of acquiring insurance and funding for scaffolding. Realizing the lack of time and financial resources our prevail was to carefully use tall ladders to help prime and paste the mural onto the 21ft by 73ft wall. Now that the mural is at its completion I'm excited that they style of the mural is unique compared to murals around Philadelphia. I am inspired at what a small group of dedicated individuals can accomplish.

view more info at http://nilelivingston.com/archives/1147

Song Credit: Jill Scott - A Long Walk (instrumental)

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

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[kpannepacker]

fantastic!!

what a wonderful project this was

peace

Kathryn Pannepacker

[russt360]

This is where life belongs... keep up the good work everyone