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Information about the PAGN and Mural Arts Program has been edited by the Mural Arts Program.
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[[Image:Helping Hands Mural.JPG|right|thumb|"Peace Wall", created in 1999 at 1308 S 29th St]]
[[Image:Helping Hands Mural.JPG|right|thumb|"Peace Wall", created in 1999 at 1308 S 29th St]]
The '''Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN)''' was founded in January 1984 by former [[Wilson Goode|Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode]].<ref name="USDA">{{cite web|publisher=United States Department of Agriculture: National Agriculture Library |lastaccess=November 14, 2006 |url= http://www.nal.usda.gov/pavnet/ce/cepagn.htm |title=Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN)}}</ref><ref name="PhilRec">{{cite web|title=Philadelphia Department of Recreation: Cultural Programs: Mural Arts |publisher=Philadelphia Department of Recreation |lastaccess=November 14, 2006 | url=http://www.phila.gov/revenue/cultural/murals.html}}</ref> The original goal of the program was to combat the spread of [[graffiti]] in the [[Philadelphia]] area and was led by Tim Spencer. In 1986 another program began within PAGN, named [[Mural Arts Program|The Mural Arts Project]] (MAP),<ref name ="MAPAbout">{{cite web|publisher=Mural Arts Program |title=Mural Arts Program: About Us |url= http://www.muralarts.org/about/ | lastaccess=November 14, 2006}}</ref><ref name="PhilRec" /> and headed by artist [[Jane Golden]].<ref name="TemplePress">{{cite web|publisher=Temple University | title =Jane Golden, Robin Rice, Natalie Pompilio: More Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell | url= http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1863_reg.html |lastaccess=November 14, 2006}}</ref><ref name= "PhillyWeekly">{{cite news|url= http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=13201 |publisher= Philadelphia Weekly Online |date= October 18th, 2006 |title=Philadelphia Weekly Online: Hit the Wall}}</ref> Through the success of both programs in 1991 the city of Philadelphia was awarded the Innovations in American Government Award due to the progress PAGN and MAP had made in the surrounding communities.<ref name="USDA" /><ref name= "Harvard">{{cite web|url= http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/awards.html?id=3525 |publisher= John F. Kennedy School of Government |lastaccess=November 14, 2006 |title=Government Innovators Network: Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network}}</ref><ref name="PhilRec" /> In 1996 the success of MAP was noted and split off into a separate program and placed under the umbrella of the Philadelphia Recreation Department.<ref name= "MAPAbout" /><ref name="PhilRec" /> From the founding of these programs over 2,500 [[mural]]s have been created across the city and over 40,000 walls cleaned of graffiti.<ref name= "Harvard">{{cite web|url= http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/awards.html?id=3525 |publisher= John F. Kennedy School of Government |lastaccess=November 14, 2006 |title=Government Innovators Network: Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network}}</ref><ref name="TemplePress" /><ref name="PhilRec" /> The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network currently consists of three programs; Mural Arts Program, Paint Voucher Program, and the Graffiti Abatement Team.<ref name="PAGNHome">{{cite web|title=Anti-Graffiti Network | publisher =City of Philadelphia |url= http://www.phila.gov/antigraffiti/ |lastaccess=November 15, 2006}}</ref>


==History==
History
A precursor is the [[Philadelphia Museum of Art|The Philadelphia Museum of Art's]] urban outreach project in the seventies. The program helped to create murals around Philadelphia to cover up the graffiti-covered buildings. The museum's program ended in 1983, a year prior to the beginning (COAST) of the PAGN, which like its predecessor attempted to use murals to curb the rising graffiti problem.<ref name="TempleColor">{{cite news|url= http://www.temple-news.com/media/storage/paper143/news/2004/10/29/InThisCity/Philadelphia.In.Color-787024.shtml?norewrite200611141434&sourcedomain=www.temple-news.com |publisher=Temple News |date=October 10, 2004 |title=Philadelphia in color}}</ref>


The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network was founded in 1984 by then-Mayor W. Wilson Goode as a solution to the city's rising graffiti problem. The idea was that graffiti writers, when they were apprehended, rather than being sentenced to serve jail time, could instead serve what was called "scrub time" removing graffiti, learning about art, and working toward a full-time, paying position with the city.
While closely related to the Philadelphia Museum of Art's urban outreach project, the PAGN encompassed a larger goal with similar priorities. The program was originally created during a citywide crackdown on graffiti and accompanied other antigraffiti regulations and increases in penalties. Selling of [[Aerosol paint|spray paints]] to minors was prohibited as well as displaying unlocked cans of paint in stores, the latter to curb the common practice of [[shoplifting]] paints. Included with the increased penalties also came alternative forms of punishment such as forcing graffiti writers to clean graffiti as a form of [[community service]] and an amnesty program for identified "taggers" who signed pledges promising not to [[vandalism|vandalize property]] anymore. The amnesty program accumulated over a thousand signatures between 1984 and 1991.<ref name= "Harvard">{{cite web|url= http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/awards.html?id=3525 |publisher= John F. Kennedy School of Government |lastaccess=November 14, 2006 |title=Government Innovators Network: Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network}}</ref> Those found guilty of vandalism also had another option: [[apprenticeship]] in the PAGN program. The apprenticeship focused on taking the creative energy of the graffiti artists (BERN) and helping them gain guidance from already established professional artists.<ref name="Harvard" /><ref name="USDA" />


Local community activist Tim Spencer was hired as the Executive Director of the program. Artist Jane Golden was hired to teach a six-week summer art program for youth. Golden went on to become the artistic director of the program. "I really grew up in Anti-Graffiti. I learned about community transformation and working with people there. Tim gave me an entree into the black community that I never would have had otherwise. In spite of our many conflicts, he gave me the opportunity to develop the program and work with so many young people. For that I'll always be grateful." -- Jane Golden, ''Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell'', Temple University Press, 2002.''''
In 1996, the PAGN program was merged into the Philadelphia Recreation Department and MAP was elevated as an independent entity.<ref name="MAPAbout" /><ref name="PhilRec" /> From the MAP program came the Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates, a not for profit corporation for raising funds for the MAP programs.<ref name="MuralArtsAD">{{cite web|url=http://www.muralarts.org/about/advocates.php | publisher=Mural Arts Program (DEFEAT) |lastaccess=November 14, 2006 |title=Mural Arts Program: About Us: Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates}}</ref> While 1996 marked a greater position for MAP it also was the year the PAGN founder, Tim Spencer, died. The roots of MAP was in a meeting with Jane Golden and Spencer in 1984 in which she asked to run a program within PAGN. Spencer originally envisioned a program that would move kids more towards other arts and crafts, however Golden envisioned what is now the MAP program.<ref name="PhillyWeekly"/>


Following Mr. Spencer's death in 1996, the graffiti abatement and mural-making programs were separated, the mural-making program was brought under the aegis of the Department of Recreation, the name Mural Arts Program was coined and Jane Golden was named the program's director.
==Divisions==
===Graffiti Abatement Team===
The Graffiti Abatement Team provides businesses, homeowners and community organizations with free painting and power-washing services in an effort to combat vandalism.<ref name="PAGNHome" /> The team on average handles up to 25 complaints related to graffiti a day and cleans upwards of 100,000 properties a year.<ref name="PhillNews">{{cite news|publisher=The Philadelphia Inquirer |title=Anti-graffiti crews take on urban scrawl |url=http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/15229023.htm |date=August 9, 2006}}</ref> Graffiti vandals who are apprehended and convicted are often given community service in the form of cleaning up graffiti around the city, since its inception over 3,000 such graffiti artists have gone through the community service program under the supervision of the Graffiti Abatement Team. During the years of 2001-2004 under [[John F. Street|Mayor John F. Street's]], Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, the Graffiti Abatement Team cleaned over 385,000 walls.<ref name="NTIReport">{{cite web|url=http://www.phila.gov/nti/reports/NTIreport2004.pdf |title=Philadelphia Neighborhood Transformation Initiative 2004 Report |publisher=City of Philadelphia |lastaccess=November 15, 2006}}</ref> Sadly, they will never win the war against graffiti because Philadelphia is a mecca for the art style.


The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network Today
===Paint Voucher Program===
The Paint Voucher Program allows businesses, community groups and homeowners to request free paint for the purpose of cleaning up graffiti on their own properties.<ref name="PhillyBiz">{{cite news|url=http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2006/04/10/story4.html |publisher=Philadelphia Business Journal |date=April 7, 2006 |title=N.J. anti-graffiti legislation is too rigid, businesses say}}</ref> The program is funded from the same $1.125 million anti-graffiti budget.<ref name="PhillNews" />


The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN) is dedicated to the eradication of graffiti vandalism through coordinated efforts of city agencies, business organizations and community groups.
===Mural Arts Program===
{{main|Mural Arts Program}}


Graffiti Abatement Team
The Mural Arts Program was founded in 1984 by [[Jane Golden]]. Golden had met the then head of the PAGN in hopes of creating a program under the umbrella project, however Spencer had originally envisioned a program that would take those caught away from graffiti and into other arts and crafts. Golden’s vision won out and the Mural Arts Program was created. The Mural Arts Program works with [[Community organizing|community groups]] to educate and involve children in arts and in creation of murals throughout the city.<ref name="TemplePress" /> The MAP also takes in prosecuted graffiti vandals at the rate of over 100 a year and involves them in the creation of many of the murals around Philadelphia. During the 2001–2004 Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, MAP had painted over 600 murals around Philadelphia.<ref name="NTIReport" />


The City of Philadelphia Graffiti Abatement Team will provide community organizations, businesses and homeowners with free power-wash services to combat graffiti vandalism from their respective properties and neighborhood.
==Awards & recognition==
It was in 1991 when the program received a milestone; not only in breaking the 1,000 mark for obtained amnesty pledges, but for also earning the 1991 Innovations in American Government Award for the city of Philadelphia for the manner in which PAGN is run. <ref name="USDA" /><ref name="Harvard" /><ref name="PhilRec" /> This was followed on February 1, 1994, with a tribute to PAGN for "10 years of changing attitudes and neighborhoods" by [[Lucien E. Blackwell]], on behalf on the [[United States House of Representatives]].<ref name="LocGov">{{cite web|publisher=United States House of Representatives |url =http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r103:FLD001:E50061 |title=Tribute to The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network — 10 Years of Changing Attitudes And Neighborhoods |lastaccess=November 14, 2006}}</ref>


Paint Voucher Program
The Mural Arts Program is responsible for the largest mural painted in Philadelphia at {{convert|600|ft|m}} in length, titled "History of Immigration", the mural displays [[settler]]s of different races who have settled in Philadelphia over time. The average mural painted by MAP is about the height of three-story [[row house]] and {{convert|35|ft|m}} wide, approximate cost is 10–15 thousand dollars, which includes artist commission and supplies.<ref name="TempleColor" />

The City of Philadelphia Managing Director's office will provide free paint and supplies to businesses and organized community groups to remove graffiti from painted surfaces.
Mural Arts Program

The Mural Arts Program (MAP) is the nation’s largest mural program. Since 1984, MAP has created over 2,800 murals and works of public art, which are now part of Philadelphia’s civic landscape and a source of inspiration to the thousands of residents and visitors who encounter them, earning Philadelphia international recognition as the “City of Murals.” MAP engages over 100 communities each year in the transformation of neighborhoods through the mural-making process. MAP’s award-winning, free art education programs annually serve over 3,000 youth at sites throughout the city and at-risk teens through education outreach programs. MAP also serves adult offenders in local prisons and rehabilitation centers, using the restorative power of art to break the cycle of crime and violence in our communities.


MAP is currently one of Philadelphia's largest employers of artists, employing over 3,000 artists a year. Currently MAP employs 36 former graffiti artists as staff members on permanent payroll and services over 300 children a year in their arts programs.<ref name="MAPAbout" /> In February 2006 the city of [[Watertown (city), New York|Watertown, NY]] asked Jane Golden to speak in hopes of creating a similar program in their area.<ref name="WaterTown">{{cite web|url= http://www.watertown-ny.gov/planning/Mural%20Arts%20Program%20.html |title=Press Release |publisher= Watertown Downtown Development |lastaccess=November 14, 2006}}</ref>


==References==
==References==
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{{portalpar|Philadelphia|Libertybell alone small.jpg}}
{{portalpar|Philadelphia|Libertybell alone small.jpg}}
*[http://www.muralarts.org/ Mural Arts Program]
*[http://www.muralarts.org/ Mural Arts Program]
*[http://www.phila.gov/antigraffiti/ Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network]
*[http://www.phila.gov/Recreation/ Philadelphia Department of Recreation]
*[http://www.whyy.org/tv12/mural/about.html WHYY Documentary on Jane Golden & MAP]
*[http://cml.upenn.edu/murals NIS muralBase]

[[Category:Graffiti and unauthorised signage]]
[[Category:Graffiti and unauthorised signage]]
[[Category:Culture of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Culture of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]]

Revision as of 21:09, 1 August 2008

File:Helping Hands Mural.JPG
"Peace Wall", created in 1999 at 1308 S 29th St

History

The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network was founded in 1984 by then-Mayor W. Wilson Goode as a solution to the city's rising graffiti problem. The idea was that graffiti writers, when they were apprehended, rather than being sentenced to serve jail time, could instead serve what was called "scrub time" removing graffiti, learning about art, and working toward a full-time, paying position with the city.

Local community activist Tim Spencer was hired as the Executive Director of the program. Artist Jane Golden was hired to teach a six-week summer art program for youth. Golden went on to become the artistic director of the program. "I really grew up in Anti-Graffiti. I learned about community transformation and working with people there. Tim gave me an entree into the black community that I never would have had otherwise. In spite of our many conflicts, he gave me the opportunity to develop the program and work with so many young people. For that I'll always be grateful." -- Jane Golden, Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell, Temple University Press, 2002.'

Following Mr. Spencer's death in 1996, the graffiti abatement and mural-making programs were separated, the mural-making program was brought under the aegis of the Department of Recreation, the name Mural Arts Program was coined and Jane Golden was named the program's director.

The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network Today

The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN) is dedicated to the eradication of graffiti vandalism through coordinated efforts of city agencies, business organizations and community groups.

Graffiti Abatement Team

The City of Philadelphia Graffiti Abatement Team will provide community organizations, businesses and homeowners with free power-wash services to combat graffiti vandalism from their respective properties and neighborhood.

Paint Voucher Program

The City of Philadelphia Managing Director's office will provide free paint and supplies to businesses and organized community groups to remove graffiti from painted surfaces.

Mural Arts Program

The Mural Arts Program (MAP) is the nation’s largest mural program. Since 1984, MAP has created over 2,800 murals and works of public art, which are now part of Philadelphia’s civic landscape and a source of inspiration to the thousands of residents and visitors who encounter them, earning Philadelphia international recognition as the “City of Murals.” MAP engages over 100 communities each year in the transformation of neighborhoods through the mural-making process. MAP’s award-winning, free art education programs annually serve over 3,000 youth at sites throughout the city and at-risk teens through education outreach programs. MAP also serves adult offenders in local prisons and rehabilitation centers, using the restorative power of art to break the cycle of crime and violence in our communities.


References