Mural Arts in Low Income Neighborhoods

Dear :

I am one of the founding members of the Haddington Residents' Association. I attended a meeting at the Haverford Library in West Philadelphia on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 where you presented a slide slow of panels that are due to be installed in our community.

At this meeting I did not fully explain my opposition to this venture and my overall dissatisfaction with the proliferation of murals in low income communities. Moreover, the introduction of these panels into an economically and politically disenfranchised community is a venture that is not in the best interest of Haddington. In the long run it will not serve our community well. I believe the panels will eventually contribute to the visual chaos in our community.

The panels that Mural Arts are planning to erect in my community do not fit the characteristic of the neighborhood. These panels will have a better home along the Parkway or maybe Rittenhouse Square. They just don fit here!! It is against urban planning standards to introduce something like this into a community without considering how it fits into the landscape and its overall suitability and sustainability as an art form. What do these panels convey about the community?? Where is the true value of having this type of art in this particular neighborhood?? How will they look in a couple of years? Will they be maintained? And by whom? Are there monies allocated for the maintenance of the panels and is that funding separate from the structure? Who should we contact if a panel and/or structure is damaged - Mural Arts or City Streets department? These are all reasonable questions that must be answered before a new initiative with such permanence is placed in a community.

Historically our community has not received support from the City to maintain basic amenities such as playground equipment or recreational facilities at standard conditions and any suggestion that the City will be concerned with preserving these panels is unrealistic. In fact, this community struggles with just getting basic City services that preserve health and safety. It is my fear that in a short period of time the panels will deteriorate without the benefit of ongoing maintenance and will eventually be an eyesore.

Although out of the scope of your funding structure, a real benefit to our community would be more greening. Greening initiatives are happening all over the City, from University City (our neighbors to the East) to Society Hill. And as such we want to be part of an initiative that is in line with progressive, aesthetically neutral projects that the entire City has embraced.

Haddington Residents' Association would welcome practical solutions that would beautify our community on a long term basis and that don't demarcate us in ways that are not culturally or aesthetically sensitive. Practically and in the short term what we do need is trash receptacles on our streets, restoring vacant lots and usable playgrounds. We do not need another vehicle, no matter how lovely at the beginning, that ends up as more urban litter.

I know it will be said that the community has welcomed the Mural Arts project. But, when you have a community that has been systematically neglected, any effort that appears to be revitalization is welcomed. Residents are vulnerable to any offers to beautify our neighborhood whether appropriate or not. We only see the consequences of our desperation later. (I question how many residents know about this project)

In the event that this project moves forward, we strongly promote using local artists from our communities that at least live in the area and that can convey the essence of our neighborhood as a work of art that makes a progressive statement about our future. We would like our artists featured in our neighborhood instead of the Mural Arts program dictating another project in yet another impoverished community with what is now considered signage art.

I don't think that we are asking anything that any other community, especially more affluent neighborhoods, would expect. What may be different in our case is that our community is not expected to have expectations.