Murals as Civic Media in Philadelphia
Civic media is the relationship between media and civic engagement. Civic engagement is where the community participates to better improve society as a whole. The difference between mass media and civic media encourages connections with others in the community, creates conversation and leads to awareness and social change. Mass media is a form of communication to reach a large audience, often general and obtaining to the general. Civic media is often geographically specific. The message that is communicated needs to be relevant to the audience and the place they live. It is hard to convince someone that re-entry programs are important for a Philadelphia community if they live in Idaho. Murals are a great example of civic media. The artists of the murals are often part of the audience as well residing from the communities that they are displayed in.
Inequality does not favor locations. Everywhere in the world inequality is present and different problems strike areas in different ways. Many issues rely on the community for help.
The people in the community want to improve their way of life and create a space that promotes a healthy life for the next generation. “Sweeping it under the rug” is a common tactic to deal with issues in society that people feel are better off for others to handle. Thinking an issue will just go away is a misconception that needs to be exposed. Creating conversation about issues is the first step to solving a problem and the murals in Philadelphia do exactly that.
The creation of the murals themselves help promote a better society and create programs that involve members of the community to spread awareness of issues that are important to them. The Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia works with the City of Philadelphia Youth Violence Reduction Partnership, Pennsylvania Prison Society, Philadelphia Department of Human Services, Philadelphia Prison System, St. Gabriel’s System, and State Correctional Institution at Graterford.
Technology use to present the mural is a wall, which makes it available for everyone in the area to see. There is no discrimination towards the audience of the murals because they are in public spaces and are free.
The mural named “Colorful Legacy” by Willis Humphrey and Keir Johnston partnered with The Building Brotherhood: Engaging Males of Color, of Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services. The mural contains positive adjectives like: love, brother, father, proud, good, king, strong, truth, help, human rights, and more. These words lay on a background of pictures from history and from all different cultures. A picture that stood out to me was the Freddie Gray protests for civil rights. There were quotes on the side of the mural that said” When I grow up, I want to be a good man” and I want to make something of my life too”. This puts the artists into the mural itself and I representative of the community that it’s in. Incarceration rates for black males are disproportionately higher than the rest of the population in the United States. Recruiting males of color to help paint this mural allows them to tell their story through art and show the community that they have hopes, dreams and more to offer than what their stereotype suggests.
The Fathers and Children Together program works with inmates from SCI-Greaterford. This outreach program helps fathers who are incarcerated to reconnect with their children. Intergenerational incarceration is a big problem in society and outreach programs like this helps encourage children to choose a path of education. This mural represents the bond between fathers and children and it is clear that they both collaborated on this project. Looking at it from an artistic view it seems as though all of the children are directly looking at the fathers but when the fathers are looking back it is not directly at them. This could represent the idea that they are not present with them and their memories are what they hold onto. I enjoyed the use of the border of the mural which clearly represented the children’s personal preference and interests.
While the above two murals mentioned represent the inequality and high incarceration rates in society for men of color, the mural “Our City, Our Vets” represents the inequality that veterans face in the United States daily. The mural is projected onto two walls facing each other that represent the life of soldiers at war and the park that the mural is located near. The mural shows that the hardships of war are carried with them until after they return home. The conversation about this issue is being brought into focus in the community so a support system can be formulated.
Murals are a work of art, but they are also a form of media. They communicate messages to the communities in which they reside. Particular social issues are brought into conversation and allow for social change. Creating conversation is the first step to creating social change.