this mural is one of thousands inPhiladelphiathey're in yuppie Rittenhouse Square andworking-class fish town near the LibertyBell and in West Philly - why doesPhilly have so many murals and how didthey make it happen it's not justbecause they're pretty though they arethat murals aren't paintings but toolsthat create wealth employ people and canhelp reimagines any city one wall at atime[Music]at broaden Spring Garden you'll findMeg's salad men's common threads acrossthe street from that near-greatyou'll find this humble pole this iskind of the thing that started Philly'sobsession with murals graffiti it wasall like an unknown world to me andanyway but it was also like superexcitingJane golden founded Billy's mural artsprogram she came to Philadelphia from LAwhere she'd painted more than 50 muralsshe was hired in the 1980s to work as apart of mayor Wilson goods anti graffitiNetwork people saw graffiti as a plagueso the idea was to stop graffiti byrecruiting graffiti artists to makemurals he had met me back then mycolleagues have been baby rock and niceand cool and disco duck it was like itwas unbelievable it was it was so greatI like fell in love with Philadelphiathrough the eyes of young people andcommunity leaders here's dr. J in a suithe looks goodright when this mural was painted in1990 people were certain it would bedefaced with graffiti when it wasn't itproved an anti graffiti strategy muralscould serve as an artistic shieldagainst vandalism that's become a modelfor lots of cities nationwide at the endof the day it was like the perfectvehicle to really move these kids fromwhere they were to another point withoutbeing like a fascist or a dictator ortoo prescriptive but for Philly to growinto a city with thousands of murals ittook a total transformation not just forthe city but for the program thatcovered it two murals need money muralarts scrambles to get it that was thecase with common threads when MegSeligman approached Jane Gould and withan idea she could view a funding and Iwas like me not reallyI said behind funding she said reallyand I was like yeah so she said okaywell guess what I got a grant fromNational Endowment of the Arts was agrant for however much money okay that'sthat will be our start so I went and Ifound some money from the city and weput that in a pot then we applied to afew little foundations and we got somegrants and then we trust' raising moneyand run out of money and then it wouldbe like half way we'd be like oh my godwe've been raising more money and Iremember we like got further down thenfurther down the wall and then finally ariver guide cheney's working thePhiladelphia Foundation he had a checkfor us for $5,000 and he drove up to theloaners and here's your check and allowthis definition sir hold it thatscramble was only possible because inthe mid 90s mural arts restructure touse both public and private money theorganization brings in an average of $115 private funds for every dollar itgets from the city I think our keyingredient is a leveraging of public andprivate funds because without thosesectors at work we would do less workand I think having the long term supportof the city has really ensured ourlongevity that means that get city perkslike the historic building that's hometo the program but it also seeks privatedollars to pay for more artists andmaterials and that money doesn't justchange a city's colors it changes itscharacter too let's say you don't careabout theater of life on Lombard abroador one world just over on 16th the wallsare just part of the program murals canboost property values in combat blightthat common threads building today it'sbeing marketed as the mural loftspeople see those murals too in 2014tours of the city brought 15,000 peopleto see the murals with 65% leaving thecenter of the city to see moreneighborhoods across the street fromcommon threads you'll find a mural on aschool in addition to employing artistsmural arts includes education programsfor about a thousand students neuralArts also designed some programsspecifically for artists with mentalhealth and substance abuse challengesthe Yale School of Medicine found thatthis public art helped Public Health inthe mural art scaleprogram for formerly incarceratedindividuals reduce the rate of return toprison the laundry list of benefits isimpressive but these murals are reallyabout communities expressing themselveswhether it's a photorealistic picture ofa legendary pool player or a moderncollage featuring icons like the rootsthe goal is to help communities make thecity their city whether they likeShepard Fairey or Keith Haring or FrankSinatra what we want is for thecommunity to be okay with it right to beinspired by it to have it so that it hasmeaning for them and then all of ittogether it's like this giant crescendothat really speaks to the importance ofnot just beauty but beauty does haveimportant but also representation andhow that representation happens it canhappen all different ways how great isthat that we get to experience all thesedifferent narratives that in the endspeak about our lives but isn't thatwhat art does that it shines a light onour diversity but lifts up ourcommonality and in the end connects usto all that makes issue I think at theend of the day that probably inspires mealmost more than anything I am I am avery serious law hunter this means thatno matter where I am no matter what cityI am in I will know this really goodblank wallyou