Data Views Search Murals Map Murals by Address User Assistance Feedback About muralBase Help Partners MuralArts.org Version 1.01 9/7/2004
		About muralBase Philadelphia is home to over 2,500 murals and is widely considered to be the "Mural Capital of the World." MuralBase pays tribute to the city’s murals and their creators by making project descriptions, photos, and artists’ profiles available through the internet. Visitors to the muralBase website can search for murals by theme, artist’s name, zipcode or year.  Searches can be limited to a specific area of the city or conducted citywide. MuralBase will return a summary list and a map of projects that meet the user-defined search criteria.  By clicking on individual murals, users can uncover more information including background data, photographs, artists’ bios and links to other projects done by the same artists. Muralbase users can also locate and explore projects in the vicinity of a specific street address. Visitors can also create and print customized maps that display Philadelphia parks, schools and other features.  These query and mapping tools make it possible to discover the thematic, artistic and geographic diversity of the city’s inventory of murals. MuralBase was created by the Cartographic Modeling Lab (CML) at the University of Pennsylvania in partnership with the Philadelphia Department of Recreation’s Mural Arts Program (MAP).  MuralBase is an extension of its Neighborhood Information System (NIS).  The primary focus of the NIS is to develop an integrated property-level database with special focus on vacant property and neighborhood change in Philadelphia.  The parcelBase and neighborhoodBase websites are used by hundreds of city departments and community based organizations to document areas of vacancy and abandonment. MuralBase is a logical and positive progression of the NIS project.  Rather than just document the location of vacant lands and abandoned properties, the CML is adding new data to the NIS to capture community redevelopment efforts that are directly related to reclaiming vacant land and buildings.  Murals and the efforts of MAP are one major example of this kind of activity. While a derelict vacant lot may be a liability, it also represent an opportunity for redevelopment.  As blank walls adjacent to vacant lots become canvases, the lots themselves are transformed from eyesores to sources of pride. Consistent with the MAP goal "to use murals and the mural design process as a tool of community engagement, blight remediation, beautification strategy and demonstration of civic pride,"  MAP projects are possible catalysts for community rebuilding.  The CML will continue to document housing and neighborhood conditions through the parcelBase and neighborhoodBase websites as well as work to incorporate new sources of data on community assets and redevelopment efforts.  For more information and contact information, see cml.upenn.edu.   The Mural Arts Project Philadelphia Department of Recreation Mural Arts Program is a public art program that works in partnership with community residents, grassroots organizations, government agencies, educational institutions, corporations and philanthropies to design and create murals of enduring value while actively engaging youth in the process. MAP achieves this through five main objectives: Work with communities to create murals that reflect and depict the culture and history or vision of those for which they are created. Develop long term, sustainable collaborations with communities that engage partners in a visioning and design process (the mural process). Promote understanding of visual art through educational programming for children and youth, foster youth development through art, and provide mentorship opportunities for high-risk students through exposure to professional muralists. Use murals and the mural design process as a tool of community engagement, blight remediation, beautification strategy and demonstration of civic pride. Generate professional development opportunities for artists, who are committed to working collaboratively in communities to create murals and visual art education projects. Originally part of Mayor Wilson Goode’s Anti-Graffiti Network, the Mural Arts Program has been contributing to neighborhood beautification and youth development efforts since 1984. In 1996, Mayor Ed Rendell moved the Mural Arts Program to the Department of Recreation, where Mural Arts could flourish as an independent entity. Over the past 18 years, the Mural Arts Program has facilitated over 2,100 mural projects and engaged over 20,000 young people and hundreds of organizations in pursuit of its broad mission. Consequently, its impact has far exceeded what might be expected of an organization with a current annual budget of $2.6 million. The murals included in this website represent a subset of the body of work that the program has created drawing from large-scale, outdoor murals produced since 1990. The Mural Arts Program hopes that muralBase provides an overview of the diversity of murals, artists and neighborhoods with whom it has the privilege of working. For more general information about MAP, please visit our website at www.muralarts.org. Copyright Notice: ©2001-2012 Cartographic Modeling Laboratory. All rights reserved.