Mural Arts continues 40th anniversary celebration with event-filled November

In celebration of its 40th anniversary, Mural Arts is offering a selection of mural dedications, special events, and tours across the month of November.

The Columbia Bridge in Spring Mural Dedication at Pennsport Rec Center will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 5, between noon and 2 p.m. Mural Arts will celebrate the unveiling of a new version of the previously lost work, originally painted by Patrick Connors and previously lost as a result of demolition. This new version will be painted by his good friend, Jon Laidacker.

Mural Arts Philadelphia and City Council Member Mike Driscoll will celebrate Northeast Philadelphia’s two newest murals on Friday, Nov. 8, in Holmesburg’s Russo Park, titled ‘Responsibility Blooms in Our Neighborhood’ and ‘Pathways to Justice’.

On Saturday, Nov. 9, Mural Arts will celebrate the opening of the Waterway Arts Initiative storefront, ‘The Water Shed’ Open House, sponsored by The Philadelphia Water Department in collaboration with Mural Arts Philadelphia and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. The Water Shed will be a hub for flooding and other water resources.

On Sunday, Nov. 10, there will be a special event to commemorate Kristallnacht, ‘The Night of Broken Glass,’ presented by the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, Mural Arts Philadelphia, and the City of Philadelphia. Marking the shift from antisemitic rhetoric and legislation to antisemitic violence and deportations, Kristallnacht was a turning point in the history of the Holocaust.

Mural Arts Philadelphia and artist Eric Okdeh will host a dedication at Fiorella Restaurant of a new work of art, ‘Mainstay in the Market,’ on Tuesday, Nov. 12. Okdeh incorporated imagery from the wealth of pictures and history of the Fiorella Family while connecting the artwork to the post design from the art nouveau poster design of the late 1800s.

Taking place on Thursday, Nov. 14, between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., Mural Arts will present the Afromation Avenue 2024 Guided Project Launch Walk. Founded by two Black Philadelphia educators, Brittni Jennings and Kristin Kelly, Afromation Avenue is a community-driven street art initiative that aims to celebrate and preserve the rich cultural heritage of Black spaces throughout the city.

University City will soon become the home to new public artwork that will be unveiled this month. The artwork – part sculpture, part soundscape, part shade structure – is a collaboration of artists Nina Cooke John, Yolanda Wisher and Kendrah Butler-Walters, and will soon be a landmark for uCity Square. Metro Arts, in partnership with Wexford Development LLC, will unveil this sculpture on Monday, Nov. 18, between 4 and 6 p.m.

Finally, a portrait series titled ‘Pyrrhic Defeat: A Visual Study of Mass Incarceration Mural Dedication’ humanizes incarcerated individuals and puts a spotlight on the human cost of mass incarceration in the United States. The event will be located at Eastern State Penitentiary and will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 5:30 p.m.