Mural Arts Program: About Us: Prevention and Rehabilitation Programs

The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (MAP), formerly part of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network, was developed initially to provide alternatives to young people who were engaged in graffiti and other minor crimes. While the program has grown substantially over the years, this fundamental objective still applies-to use mural-making and art education as a means of combating and preventing crime and its impact on communities. MAP has taken a pro-active role in dealing with issues around crime and delinquency by increasing the programs available to: adult inmates at local correctional facilities; ex-offenders re-entering their communities; juveniles arrested for minor crimes and in residential placement; chronically truant youth; residents of crime-impacted neighborhoods; and victims of crime.

MAP offers a wide array of mural-making programs for adult men and women at three correctional facilities in the Philadelphia area: the State Correctional Institution (SCI) at Graterford, Riverside Correctional Facility for women, and Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility (CFCF). Once a week at SCI-Graterford, the sixth largest maximum security prison in the country, MAP works with men enrolled in an officially-recognized work program in which participants receive a stipend to create murals for schools and community centers throughout Philadelphia. Often, when time and resources allow, these inmates work together on their murals without the assistance of MAP staff. Additionally, MAP collaborates every other week with victims, community members, and youth enrolled in local reintegration programs on these mural-making projects. MAP's Graterford initiative offers a visiting artist program that provides inmates opportunities to participate in monthly lectures and writing workshops with professional artists. At Riverside, MAP is working twice a week with groups of 15 women to create a series of small indoor murals in recreation centers throughout the prison. In addition, a muralist will collaborate with 20 female inmates to create a large outdoor mural on the wall of Riverside Correctional Facility. CFCF, like SCI-Graterford, will soon host weekly mural-making workshops where roughly 100 inmates will be able to participate.

Civil Rights
1159 South 19th Street, 2005. Artists: Eric Okdeh with Men from the Mural Program at SCI-Graterford. Sponsors: Ford Foundation, Philadelphia Safe & Sound.

Through the guidance of a rigorous art education curriculum, MAP is working closely with adjudicated youth at three locations: Youth Study Center (residential placement for youth ages 12-17); House of Correction (residential placement for juveniles who are or have been tried as adults); and St. Gabriel's Hall (long-term residential placement for delinquent male youth.) MAP has plans to expand its programming to include youth from the Glen Mills Schools (a residential school for court adjudicated male delinquents between 15 and 18 years of age.)

MAP staff and instructors engage young men enrolled in these programs in a variety of activities designed to increase each student's self-worth and artistic talent. Recently, instructors led youth at the House of Correction in a series of writing circles during which students wrote and read about particularly poignant experiences in their lives. These writing circles followed an open format allowing for raw and honest responses. These writings will impact the final mural designs of the All Join Hands: The Visions of Peace project – a city-wide initiative using public art to investigate the unthinkable homicide of youth in the Philadelphia region. Future writing circles will be used as the foundation for the visual elements of murals located within the House of Correction.

The program at St. Gabriel's Hall, one of MAP's newest initiatives, allows for some of the most groundbreaking work MAP has been able to accomplish within the criminal justice system. Once a week for three hours, St. Gabe's youth work with MAP staff and instructors in an intensive mural-making class dealing with the profound impact crime and violence has had on their lives. Every other week, these youth meet with the men in the Mural Program at SCI-Graterford. There, in a safe space facilitated by the collaborative process of mural-making, youth and older offenders share their personal experiences, the harm they have caused to themselves and others, and ways to break the cycle of violent crime. Not only is it a way for youth and adults to share in the power of art-making, but it provides a venue for the men in the Mural Program to dissuade their young friends from continuing down the negative path of crime and delinquency.

Finally, in partnership with the Department of Human Services, MAP has many youth enrolled in ARTscape – a program that allows its members to serve out the community service hours they have been assigned by Youth Aid Panels or the Family Courts through the creation of murals, mosaics, and other artwork. ARTscape offers youth a structured, supportive environment where they can explore the visual and creative arts, learn to work as a team, build relationships with mentors, and contribute to their communities in a positive way.

This January, ARTscape expanded beyond its current locations at the Thomas Eakins House and the Hawthorne Cultural Center with the opening of two new sites at the Kirkbride and NET residential facilities, allowing ARTscape to serve considerably more youth.

Check out the Mural Gallery for a photo of Urban Horseman, the latest major ARTscape mural.

Evolution: From Captivity to Freedom
Interior mural at House of Correction, 2007.
Artists: Angela Crafton, Pose II, and HOC Youth. Sponsor: Philadelphia Prison System

MAP's individual programs with adjudicated youth and adults have catalyzed the development of special large-scale mural projects that seek to engage both parties in a meaningful dialogue about the impact and consequences of violent crime beyond the prison walls. In 2004, the Healing Walls project brought together SCI-Graterford inmates with victims of crime and their advocates to construct two large-scale outdoor murals. To create these works, MAP and the Pennsylvania Prison Society facilitated sessions both inside and outside of the prison where stakeholders were brought together to discuss their stories.

The final murals, designed by lead artist Cesar Viveros, contain riveting images that deal with the impact of crime and the journey toward healing, one from the inmates' perspective and the second from the point of view of crime victims. The voices of these participants—both the inmates and the victims—haunt the murals and capture the pain and the tragedy that all parties have sought to transcend. More importantly, these murals created a bridge between disparate groups whose paths otherwise would not have crossed. Although complex and challenging, Healing Walls succeeded in creating a space for healing and reconciliation, and provided a life-changing experience for many of its participants.

Healing Walls (Inmates Journey)
3049 Germantown Avenue, 2004. Artists: Cesar Viveros, Parris Stancell. Sponsors: City of Philadelphia, Ford Foundation, Samuel S. Fels Fund, Suzanne F. Roberts Cultural Development Fund.

Healing Walls (Victims Journey)
3065 Germantown Avenue, 2004. Cesar Viveros, Parris Stancell. Sponsors: City of Philadelphia, Ford Foundation, Samuel S. Fels Fund, Suzanne F. Roberts Cultural Development Fund.

The successes of Healing Walls led to a new initiative entitled Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ). The Healing Walls' inmate artists (many of whom had been juvenile offenders and are now serving life sentences) asked for an opportunity to work with young offenders in the hope of deterring their negative life decisions and criminal behavior.

My Life, My Path, My Destiny
2157 E. Lehigh Avenue, 2005. Artist: Cesar Viveros. Sponsors: City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services, The Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation.

In this project, each stakeholder had an important role to play. Centering around St. Anne Church where many of the neighborhood meetings took place, the Kensington community used this opportunity to share their point of view about living with crime. The men in the Mural Program at SCI-Grateford served as mentors, using their own trajectories from juvenile offenders to adults serving long-term sentences as cautionary tales for the young men. The young people from St. Gabriel's Hall used this project as a chance to interact with crime victims and the community in an attempt to make amends and feel a positive connection through mural-making. All stakeholders participated in meetings and design review sessions to create a work of art that reflected a sincere and thoughtful discussion of juvenile crime. This in-depth process revealed the two distinct paths laid out for the young men: either accept responsibility, give and gain empathy, and help rebuild-or risk further isolation and graduate to "adult" crime and adult punishment.

Though BARJ proved to be an intense undertaking, the final mural more than justified the community's concerted efforts. Entitled My Life, My Path, My Destiny, Cesar Viveros' inspiring, nearly quarter-mile-long mural in the Kensington section of North Philadelphia reflects the journey of the juvenile offender-decisions to be faced, the consequences of different choices, and the possibility of rising above difficulties.