Mural Arts Month
October 20, 2023
ICYMI October is Mural Arts Month. Started in 1998 by Mural Arts Philadelphia - it is a time to celebrate Mural Arts Philadelphia’s nearly four-decade-long dedication to positively transforming our community.
They have collaborated with thousands of artists to create approximately 4,000 murals - each serving as more than just a beautification project - they’re catalysts for meaningful dialogue and change in the City of Philadelphia.
Mural Arts Philadelphia has also collaborated with dozens of organizations - including SEPTA - to provide a canvas, backdrop, and/or platform for these murals.
Over the years - murals have graced the inside and outside of SEPTA vehicles, concourses, platforms, and walls - adding beauty, creativity, and oftentimes wonder to an everyday commute.
In 2016 - Mural Arts Philadelphia held true to their belief that art ignites change and with the help of artists Shira Walinsky and Laura Deutch brought us 47 Stories.47 Stories focused on SEPTA Route 47 - a bus route that runs from north to south - connecting diverse communities along the way. Through powerful imagery and quotations - 47 Stories demonstrated that “we are all migrating together.”
In 2019 - Philadelphia Microcosm by Jon Laidacker became the newest addition to Jefferson Station thanks to Mural Arts. Philadelphia Microcosm tells a story - but it also creates awareness around significant landmarks, people, and experiences of our city's past. This beautiful mural celebrates the history of Reading Terminal Market over its 125+ years of existence - including an incredible amount of diversity in merchants, goods, and experiences. The mural also showcases the interconnected world of SEPTA and the network of sights and experiences our city offers through public transportation.
Also in 2019 - Mural Arts Philadelphia created an innovative new program - Color Me Back: A Same Day Work and Pay Program - which combines participatory art-making and access to social services. The program offers individuals who are experiencing economic insecurity an opportunity to earn wages. Those who are selected helped design and paint a mural in the concourse at Suburban Station. The first of many murals was approximately 57 feet by 7 feet, 6 inches and was dedicated on July 30, 2019.
A partnership in 2020 between Mural Arts Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health engaged local artists in a campaign to help protect public health during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also helped to make seven (7) SEPTA bus loops are a whole lot brighter and smarter thanks to temporary vinyl floor tiles placed at six-foot intervals to remind riders about social distancing protocols and other health guidelines in public places.
Also in 2020 - Mural Arts Philadelphia and the City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services announced Phase II of Color Me Back. This new phase covered 200 columns in the SEPTA concourse along the Broad Street Line between City Hall Station and Walnut/Locust Station with brightly-colored public art designed by Philadelphia artist Lauren Cat West and painted by the participants in the program.
In 2022 - SEPTA and Mural Arts Philadelphia debuted a series of murals titled “A Distant Spark: Iterations 1-5” and “A Blinding Light: Iterations 1-5” by artist Andrea Grasso in Suburban Station. These to were part of Mural Arts’ Color Me Back program. The project's overarching theme is connectivity. The mural piece comprises ten panels - five on each side of the concourse along 15th Street. They represent the development of the city over time and the layering and overlapping of infrastructure, including the underground work of the subway system. The central design in the series is reminiscent of the city center, a hub from which everything radiates.
In 2023 - a new mural by artist Lisa Kelley and artists from the Color Me Back program debuted at Suburban Station outside of the SEPTA REM&E Office. The mural – featuring three birds displaying the messages, “my art gives me a voice”, “making art brings me back to life", and “my art helps me breathe,” helps to uplift the many voices of participants from Color Me Back.
In March 2023 - SEPTA and Mural Arts Philadelphia unveiled Cloud in Your Teacup on the 2100 block of Cuthbert Street. This meditative mural done by Adriana Amador-Chacon, Daniel Lipschutz, Monica Mathieu, and Joshua Sarantitis reflects on the teaching philosophy that all sentient beings are interrelated. That the cloud in the sky is no different from the tea in your cup. The design takes viewers through a visual metamorphosis from DNA, cells, leaves, and trees to our solar system and back. From hexagonal beehive shapes to the organic and free flowing branches in our depiction of the cosmic tree – each of the 17 panels (there are 17 letters that make up Cloud in Your Teacup) can stand on its own as a chapter in this circular narrative. By the end of the mural; reading left to right one finds a teacup with clouds emerging. The participants in Color Me Back are represented by the hand holding the teacup – though many are considered “other” by the fact of being houseless – this mural acts as a metaphor for this non-separation, this interbeing.
In June 2023 - Mural Arts Philadelphia and SEPTA joined forces for Getting to Green: Routes to Roots - a groundbreaking multi-disciplinary public art project led by artists Shira Walinsky and Laura Deutch. By incorporating artistic elements and actively encouraging public transportation to parks and nature areas - riders are empowered to embrace transit not only for recreation but also for their daily commuting, errands, sports events, and cultural exploration.
This creative approach fosters familiarity and comfort - inspiring individuals to choose public transportation as their preferred mode of transport.
In October 2023 - Mural Arts debuted Philly Daydreams: Stories In Transit - a new augmented reality public art project by Indian-American artist and filmmaker Anula Shetty. Shetty’s project explores public transportation as a service that unites people through a shared experience. To encourage connections following the isolating effects of COVID-19 and to celebrate the collective nature of public transportation - Shetty filmed interviews with SEPTA riders and bus and trolley operators as well as with poets like Ursula Rucker, local business owners like YOWIE founder Shannon Maldonado, activists, and other cultural leaders including Street Dept’s Conrad Benner around the theme of “daydreaming in transit.” QR-triggered photographs taken by Shetty can be found on select Broad Street Line trains as well as on buses, trolleys, and digital screens across the system. Anyone with a phone can activate a transit story. Riders who hold their phone up to these panels will trigger one of Shetty’s filmed interviews to appear on their screen - creating the visual of a fellow rider accompanying them on their journey and sharing their dreams in transit.
These murals beautify our city and creates the opportunity for curiosity around the images they depict. They make art accessible to entirely new audiences and encourage visitors to engage with Philadelphia in fresh, thoughtful ways.
Further - the vibrant art in SEPTA stations and platforms reminds riders that they are part of and connected to a dynamic, diverse, cultural community as they engage with our city.
Congrats on 25 years!
