Behind the Mural

Reentry workers paint murals throughout the city of Philadelphia for the Mural Arts Program .

Where did murals start? Some of the first known wall paintings were found on cave walls in France

and Spain, somewhere between thirty-seven thousand and eleven thousand years ago.

For what purpose were these cave paintings made?

•Who are the people in this image?

•Where do you think they are?

•Why would someone paint a mural of these workers?

•Where would be a good place to put a mural like this?The Printing Industry (study for mural, Springfield, Ohio Post Office)

Mural of Sports ca. 1937-1938 Joseph Rugolo

If this mural was in your town what could you assume about the people living around you?

The Driller (mural, Rikers Island, New York)

What might this image tell you about the workers in a town?

Orange Picking (mural study for Fullerton, California Post Office)

What might this image tell you about a town’s resources?

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV Promotion, Los Angeles

Why might murals be an effective way of advertising?

Typical folk art, Middlesboro, Kentucky.

What is the difference between a mural and graffiti?

NYC Subway Graffiti, Anonymous Making a Fresco,1931, Diego Rivera

2009 Venice Beach graffiti wall, Zeitgeist, Anonymous

What is the purpose of this mural?

Falsas Promesas Broken Promises, John Fekner, Charlotte Street Stencils, South Bronx, NY 1980

Banksy, New Orleans

For what reason were these murals painted in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina?

http://www.pbs.org/art21/multimedia/index.html - kilgallen

Margaret Kilgallen Video- Handmade Signs and Writing on Trains

Biography Margaret Kilgallen was born in 1967 in Washington, D.C. and received her BA in printmaking from Colorado College in 1989. Early experiences as a librarian and bookbinder contribute to her encyclopedic knowledge of signs drawn from American folk tradition, printmaking, and letterpress. Kilgallen has a love of “things that show the evidence of the human hand.” Painting directly on the wall, Kilgallen creates room-size murals that recall a time when personal craft and handmade signs were the dominant aesthetic. Strong, independent women walking, surfing, fighting, and biking feature prominently in the artist’s compositions. Her work has been shown at Deitch Projects and the Drawing Room in New York, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Luggage Store in San Francisco, the Forum for Contemporary Art in St. Louis, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Kilgallen’s work was recently presented at the UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum. She died in June 2001 in San Francisco, where she lived with her husband, Barry McGee.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4120730

• All Things Considered, October 21, 2004 · The inner city of Philadelphia has long struggled with crime. In 2003 alone, 34 murders, 91 rapes and 640 robberies were registered in north Philly's Badlands community. Today, two new murals loom over the neighborhood. One is a memorial to the victims and survivors of crime. The other is a testament from the offenders, many now incarcerated for life. Together, these "Healing Walls," a project of Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program, tell the story of these streets and the families who inhabit them.

• Victoria Green, a Badlands resident and a counselor in the prison system, is the mother of four: three law enforcement officers and a murdered drug dealer. The central figure in the victims' mural, Green is shown leading grieving children through a graveyard.

• "Within these neighborhoods are people who worked hard, who want the American dream, who have religious values, know right from wrong," Green tells Marion Winik. "This is a symbol for them to stand up and have a voice and have a picture."

What is the significance of mural creation in American society?