Hundreds turn out to add color to Philadelphia Foundation legacy mural

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Nearly 500 people made their way to Cherry Street Pier on Thursday morning to help Mural Arts Philadelphia with a painting project. Most of the participants were just everyday people with little or no painting experience — which made them perfectly qualified for the job.

The Philadelphia Foundation is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The would-be artists were painting sections of the Foundation's "legacy mural," which will represent everything the community support organization has done in the last century, and what they hope to do moving forward.

Mural Arts invited anybody who was interested, regardless of their experience level, to help paint during a two-hour period at Cherry Street Pier. Foundation President Pedro Ramos says the mural's lead artist did as much as possible to make this a mural for everyone.

"Going around the region, different neighborhoods, different towns, and engaging artists and communities in creating a piece that will hopefully last a long time," he said. "It's really an expression of the whole region."

A lot of painters, like Hannah, didn't even really know what they were painting, as they applied bright colors to individual segments of the larger installation.

That didn't seem to matter.

"It's fun. Its very nicely laid out. It's just kind of a paint-by-the-numbers type experience. It's relaxing to just sort of zone in and paint your pieces," Hannah said. "We have decided it kind of looks like sort of a Rorschach, abstract, city-block map of some kind."

She was there with her friend June. Both are teachers in the School District of Philadelphia, enjoying their time off this summer.

"So we have our summers off, and it felt like a fun way to be involved in the community, and like do something that's relaxing but tangible," she said.

Diane Melley is executive director of the Philadelphia Foundation, and she says the Legacy Mural will be unveiled in November near 24th and Market streets and will represent the foundation and the people it supports.

"A mix of all different kinds of people from the community in photography on the mural, as well as painted into the mural. And also we have mosaics on the mural," she said. "So a really rich history of where we've been and, very importantly, what the future holds for us."

There will be several more paint days in the coming weeks. Those dates can be found at PhilaFound.org.