Like Philadelphia’s neighborhood gardens planted on hundreds of acres of vacant lots throughout the city, the murals are a symbol of civic care and of a public commitment to revitalization. Murals are a bridge between public art, community revitalization and youth development. In a city like Philadelphia, which has lost half a million residents over a fifty-year period, the recovery of a vacant wall or a vacant lot is akin to fixing the “broken window;” it sends a signal about civic and public norms and neighborhood capacity. It is a relatively low-cost, high impact form of place- making that creates something.
