Graphic design student Randi Dean created a timeline of Mural Arts' history
Today, the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program officially opened a new public space, Mural Arts at The Gallery, the place to tour, shop, learn and create with the largest public art program in the world. The new space is on the third level of The Gallery at Market East, closest to the 9th and Market St. entrance to The Gallery, and will allow for a variety of uses including tour box office, retail store, a museum and studio. Mural Arts at The Gallery is a 3,500 square-foot multi-use space that will operate year-round. Featured in the space is a mobile exhibit about the history of the Mural Arts Program, designed by graphic design student Randi Dean from Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. Dean created the exhibit as part of an exhibit design course taught by professor Amy Rees, which was intended to address real world projects. Her 27-foot-4.5-inch by 10-foot timeline, featuring photos of murals throughout the years, tells the story of the Philadelphia Mural Arts program and introduces visitors to what Mural Arts is all about. “All 14 students in the class tackled this assignment, creating design solutions for a mobile exhibit to promote Mural Arts to the public and encourage the public's engagement with the Mural Arts program in various ways,” said Rees. “The students collaborated and presented their design concepts to the Mural Arts representatives and we’re thrilled that Randi's was selected.”
Mural Arts at The Gallery
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| Photo Credit: Steve Weinik for the Mural Arts Program |
At Mural Arts at The Gallery, the tour box office for the Mural Arts Program, tour tickets for the nearly 30,000 individuals who take mural tours each year will now be sold on-site, and most mural tours will start and end at The Gallery. At the retail store, shoppers can purchase one-of-a-kind merchandise created with icons of the Mural Arts Program projects, a variety of books and DVDs created about a range of these projects, and original artwork made in Philadelphia by Mural Arts Program artists and students. Examples of available items include the two large illustrated books about the history of the Mural Arts Program, prints of murals, mugs, note cards, tote bags, t-shirts created by students in the Art Education program, puzzles, scarves, handmade birdhouses produced by inmate/artists in the Restorative Justice program and original artwork. In the museum, regular rotating exhibits will share space with the pictorial history of the Mural Arts Program and Mural Explorer interactive touch-screen kiosks. In the studio, on the same floor as the retail space, a 2,500 square-foot painting studio houses master muralists and their team of artists year-round as they create sections of real murals. Private groups can book experiential tours and participate in the painting of murals, and the studio will also be open for public community paint days several times a year. The Guild, a program at Mural Arts that develops transferable skills for men and women coming out of incarceration, completed demolition, rough carpentry, drywall, flooring, painting, and more in the new space. Mural Arts at The Gallery hours of operation will be Monday – Thursday, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.; and Sunday, noon - 5 p.m. The phone number is: 215-926-3633. Drexel’s award-winning graphic design program is part of the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. The program has won 115 industry awards since September 2010. In addition to an unprecedented number of wins for Drexel at the Creativity 41 Annual Awards and the 27th Annual American Graphic Design & Advertising Awards, the program also has had three students named “Students to Watch” by the prestigious USA Graphic Design magazine: Kathryn Hall and April Moralba in 2011, and Kat Madamba in 2010. Students also were included in the international publication Graphis New Talent Annual: Nicole Bonavitacola and Dorothy Lun in 2011 and Courtney Remm in 2010. About the Mural Arts Program
The Mural Arts Program is the nation’s largest mural program. Since 1984, the Mural Arts Program has created over 3,500 murals and works of public art, earning Philadelphia international recognition as the “City of Murals.” The Mural Arts Program engages over 100 communities each year in the transformation of neighborhoods through the mural-making process, while award-winning, free art education programs serve nearly 1,500 youth at sites throughout the city and at-risk teens through education outreach programs. The Mural Arts Program also serves adult offenders in local prisons and rehabilitation centers, using the restorative power of art to break the cycle of crime and violence in our communities. Each year, nearly 30,000 residents and visitors tour the Mural Arts Program’s outdoor art gallery, which has become part of Philadelphia’s civic landscape and a source of pride and inspiration. For further information, call 215- 685-0750 or visit www.muralarts.org. To book tours, call 215- 925-3633 or visit the website.