{"id":263878,"date":"2026-08-12T11:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/263878\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T11:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:44:07","slug":"emily-mello-to-take-the-reins-as-executive-director-of-mural-arts-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/263878\/","title":{"rendered":"Emily Mello to take the reins as executive director of Mural Arts Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.audacy.com\/kywnewsradio\/topic\/mural-arts-philadelphia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mural Arts Philadelphia<\/a> has named its new executive director. Emily Mello will take over for Jane Golden, who is retiring after leading the organization for 43 years. <\/p>\n<p>Golden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.audacy.com\/kywnewsradio\/news\/local\/jane-golden-to-step-down-from-mural-arts-after-40-years\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">announced last year that she would retire<\/a> from the organization she founded in 1984.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love my job,\u201d she told KYW Newsradio, \u201cbut there comes a time in every organization&#8217;s life when you have to grapple with what&#8217;s next.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s next for Golden is passing the torch to the next generation of leadership. Mello will officially take on the executive director role on Sept. 1. Her resume includes 20 years of experience in art education and curation from Chicago to Miami.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a real honor to build upon a 40-year legacy of working with communities to create work that reflects the stories of Philadelphia,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p>As she prepares to lead an organization that\u2019s overseen the installation of more than 4,000 murals across Philly, Mello said her goal is not to reinvent the wheel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of my top priorities will be ensuring continuity, because the mission is so strong \u2014 the programs in restorative justice, youth education and creating public art,\u201d she said, though she added she wants to prioritize elevation as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen people talk about taking it to the next level, creating programs that think of art as medicine for health,\u201d she said, \u201cI\u2019m speaking expansively into the future, continuing to respond to place and to Philly very strongly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mello said much of her job will be letting the past inform the future, while continuing to focus on community. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI center artists, but I also center publics and communities because it\u2019s all one and the same for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m thrilled to be joining Mural Arts. It&#8217;s an amazing team and an amazing legacy to build upon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Mural Arts Philadelphia has named its new executive director. Emily Mello will take over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8865,752,69,71,70,755],"class_list":["post-263878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-mural-arts-philadelphia","tag-murals","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-public-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}