Philadelphia Mural Arts Program Community Impact Assessment—2003

This project represents a first attempt to assess the impact of the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (MAP)—initiated in 1984 under the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network--on the city's neighborhoods. The need for a community impact assessment grew out of the changing character of the Mural Arts Program since its move in 1996 from the Office of the Mayor of Philadelphia to the Philadelphia Department of Recreation. With support by the Ford Foundation through a business planning grant, MAP launched the evaluation in the summer of 2000.

SIAP's report concludes that as a public art program operating within a City agency, the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program has unique potential to benefit Philadelphia neighborhoods and residents. MAP has evolved into an established public program with a nonprofit arm and substantial private support. The program is in a strong position to serve a range of constituencies—neighborhoods, young people, and artists—and to connect these often isolated and vulnerable groups. Thus MAP holds a unique opportunity as a bridging institution—to mobilize networks and to connect grassroots and community organizations with regional resources, government agencies, and private grant-makers. Therein lies MAP's greatest potential to impact Philadelphia communities.

 

 

Social Impact of the Arts Project

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  • Publication
    An Assessment of Community Impact of the Philadelphia Department of Recreation Mural Arts Program
    (2003-04-01) Stern, Mark J; Seifert, Susan C
    This 2003 report is a first assessment of community impact of the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program since its start in 1984 under the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network. The study, undertaken from 2000 to 2002, incorporated a variety of methods. SIAP developed a geographic database on the location of murals to assess whether their density was related to other characteristics of a neighborhood. The team also developed a detailed mural production database to examine the nature of community involvement in MAP's process. Finally, the team employed a “community leveraging" model, based on a method developed by Penn’s Program for the Study of Organized Religion and Social Work, to estimate voluntary and in-kind contributions to mural production. The report concludes with a set of organizational and programmatic recommendations intended to maximize the potential of the Philadelphia Department of Recreation Mural Arts Program to mobilize resources and build connections among the city's neighborhoods, its young people, and its artists.