{"id":285979,"date":"2026-09-14T20:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T20:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/285979\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T20:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T20:40:09","slug":"keith-haring-mural-may-decide-the-fate-of-public-art-in-philly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/285979\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Haring Mural May Decide the Fate of Public Art in Philly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feature<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe The Youth\u201d (1987), painted on a wall co-owned by a real-estate developer, could become the city\u2019s first outdoor mural on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.<\/p>\n


\n \"Isabella
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\"Keith
\n Keith Haring, \u201cWe The Youth\u201d (1987), painted in collaboration with high school students and with the assistance of artists Clarence Wood, Gilberto Wilson, and Jose Seabourne (all photos Isa Segalovich\/Hyperallergic unless noted)<\/p>\n

PHILADELPHIA \u2014\u00a0The fate of a Keith Haring mural in Philadelphia may be sealed this week in a decision that could also set a precedent for how to protect public art in the City of Brotherly Love.<\/p>\n

At the height of his career in the 1980s, Keith Haring joined up<\/a> with 14 high school students to paint a mural in a quiet pocket of South Philadelphia. The artist intentionally passed over better-trafficked areas of the city, instead selecting<\/a> a wall on a residential building in the historically Black neighborhood of Point Breeze. A year after painting his legendary \u201cCrack is Wack<\/a>\u201d mural in New York City, and three years before he died from AIDS-related complications, Haring drew bold, black outlines of his signature dancing figures that students filled in with bright colors and patterns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, after being restored twice<\/a> over its 39-year lifespan, \u201cWe The Youth\u201d (1987) is the only one of his collaborative murals that remains in its original location.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At a public meeting<\/a> scheduled for this Wednesday, September 16, the Philadelphia Historical Commission will entertain public comments and discuss<\/a> whether to add \u201cWe The Youth\u201d to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. If approved, it would be the first time an outdoor mural in the \u201cMural Capital of the World<\/a>\u201d would receive the commission’s protection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Polaroid photo of \u201cWe The Youth\u201d being painted in 1987 (image courtesy the Keith Haring Foundation Archives)<\/p>\n

The wall the mural is painted on is co-owned by the Neighborhood Gardens Trust<\/a> (NGT), an organization that preserves Philadelphia community gardens, and OCF Realty, a controversial<\/a> real estate company often held<\/a> responsible<\/a> for the rapid gentrification<\/a> of the Point Breeze neighborhood. Almost every key stakeholder has publicly supported the mural\u2019s designation, including the Keith Haring Foundation, which told Hyperallergic in a statement that the move would be \u201cpreserving it as a unique cultural icon and providing the necessary legal protections against its loss.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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