ART FOR COMMUNITY’S SAKE

I’ve been in Philadelphia over the weekend, visiting arts group and talking with artists and community members about how art can transform communities.  Philadelphia is known as the city of murals, and you wouldn’t be disappointed if you came with the expectation to see a lot of them.  There are huge multistory murals on main streets and in downtown, and there are large and small murals in many, many neighborhoods.  A lot of that is done through the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (http://muralarts.org/).  I’ve seen many of the wonderful murals they have commissioned, cajoled or inspired, but today I saw what has become my favorite: a garbage truck mural!  A city garbage truck—picking up recycling to be exact—right in the middle of 11^th Street near Lehigh!

I spent some time at the Village of Arts and Humanities in north Philadelphia (http://villagearts.org/).  It is located in a neighborhood that has—or had—a lot of empty lots.  A lot of lots.  Many of these have been transformed by the organization to be gardens of different types: vegetable gardens, where youth and elders were watering (before the thunderstorm broke through the 90 degree heat).  Gardens with mosaic benches and sculptures.  An open air stage.  There was nothing going on when I was there; and there was everything.  There was nothing going on when I was there; and yet, because of the art and the space it created for people, it felt inhabited.

Some of the murals in the Village area were on buildings whose backyards were full of junk and weeds.  Some were on vacant buildings.  Most people in the Philadelphia area probably never venture to see the great art work there, because it’s in “a rough area”.  I last saw the area 8 years ago, when I was still living in Philly, and some things have not changed: beautiful community-created art next to abandoned buildings.  In some ways, that is exactly where art should be: calling attention not primarily to itself, but to the community that created it and lives in and around it, and their longing for justice, healing and love.

I suppose you could ask if all the effort that went into creating the gardens and sculptures and murals and other public art made any difference.  I sometimes ask myself that about our Semilla Community Arts Program and the ministry of our church in general.  But when I was walking through the uninhabited inhabited beauty of those gardens today—smelling the flowers, and stopping under the shade trees, and even keeping an eye out for rats as I walked through an overgrown jungle of weeds—I had no doubt.

Be beauty.  Be justice.

Patrick