Art Ignites Change

To the Polls 2020 is a temporary mural project in iconic LOVE Park aimed at exciting Philadelphia's electorate. And today, we talk with two of the project's participating artists, as well as one of the artists from our To the Polls 2018 iteration, about their murals and the value of civic public art. Meet artists Kah Yangni, Candy Alexandra González, and Blur!

As the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the Office of the District Attorney of Philadelphia, artist James "Yaya" Hough worked to humanize people living and working within systems of criminal justice by cultivating relationships and connections through his artmaking. In conversation with curator Paul Farber, Hough explains the creative process behind the resulting work, Points of Connection, which raises the question: "What does justice look like?"

Meet Lauren Kennedy, the Executive Director of Memphis, Tennessee's UrbanArt Commission! The UrbanArt Commission is a non-profit organization committed to creating opportunities for artists and neighborhoods to connect and shape spaces through public art. In today's podcast, we talk with Lauren about some past, present, and future Commission projects, about how Memphis thinks about public art making, and about their connections to Philadelphia's long history of investment in art in the public space.

In today's episode, Mural Art's Chief Operating Officer, Magda Martinez, hosts artists Meg Saligman and Cesar Viveros Herrera to tell the story of what is arguably Philadelphia's most popular mural, "Common Threads". From its unexpected origin to its uncertain future, we get a behind the scenes look at the making of Philly public art history!

Join episode host Greg Corbin, Director of Mural Arts Philadelphia's Restorative Justice Program, and artist Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter for a conversation about a current Mural Arts project, "Emerge". Making use of traditional and modern ideas of public space, the project is distributing PSAs created by local artists that are a direct response to COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement. #WeWillEmerge

Welcome to Art Ignites Change, a new podcast by Mural Arts Philadelphia, the nation's largest public arts program. This podcast is exploring public art in Philly, naturally, but also from around the world and from different eras. And for this teaser episode, arts advocate Conrad Benner is interviewing Mural Arts' Founder and Director Jane Golden to talk about the future of public art in the wake of COVID-19.