{"id":110896,"date":"2025-08-26T08:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T08:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/110896\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T08:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T08:56:09","slug":"jane-golden-is-stepping-down-from-mural-arts-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/110896\/","title":{"rendered":"Jane Golden is stepping down from Mural Arts Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

The origins of Mural Arts Philadelphia<\/p>\n

Mural Arts Philadelphia was born inside the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network, a project started in 1984 by Tim Spencer during Mayor Wilson Goode\u2019s administration to curb vandalism, mostly through various forms of punishment and control of graffiti writers.<\/p>\n

Golden, as a part-time employee, suggested a carrot to go along with that stick: What if she rallied graffiti artists to channel their talents toward legal murals instead of illegal tags? In 1986, the anti-Graffiti Network launched that idea as the Mural Arts Program.<\/p>\n

At the time, the network required participating graffiti writers to sign an official statement agreeing to no longer deface property, which Golden knew was never going to stick.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody was like, \u2018I\u2019m changing right away,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThen they wrote my name. They wrote \u2018Cool Jane.\u2019 I\u2019ve never been cool. I would just say, \u2018You have to stop. You have to stop writing my name.\u2019 Tim Spencer would go, \u2018Who\u2019s Jane?\u2019 and they would say, \u2018Oh, some girl from Kensington.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JaneJane Golden and the Anti Graffiti Network crew in 1985. (Courtesy of Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as part of the Philadelphia Inquirer Collection)<\/p>\n

To the best of her knowledge, there are no \u2018Cool Jane\u2019 tags existing anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I was on Amtrak and I saw one,\u201d Golden said. \u201cIt was funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the caveats of the Mural Arts Program was a ban on spray paint. Golden said the Anti-Graffiti Network would allow its artists to paint on approved walls with brushes only. Spray paint was too closely associated with graffiti.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Golden relaxed that rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpray is a tool like anything else,\u201d she said. \u201cI find good graffiti art fascinating. It\u2019s beautiful. Some people have been critical, they\u2019re like, \u2018You can\u2019t condone this.\u2019 Well, I am hugely supportive of it, but it has to be done legally. That\u2019s the litmus test for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those early years were not easy. Golden had bad equipment and supplies, which often got stolen. Wary residents often didn\u2019t know what a mural was or why there should be one in their neighborhood. The work was done in all kinds of weather under impossible conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like there was a blueprint or a road map. We didn\u2019t have a strategic plan. Nothing,\u201d Golden said. \u201cWe had our will. We had passion. We had excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golden\u2019s\u2019 first test came immediately. In 1984, Rev. Jesse Jackson chose Philadelphia as the first stop of his presidential campaign. Mayor Goode looked at the Spring Garden Bridge, the gateway to the mostly Black neighborhoods of West Philadelphia, and saw a mess: it was covered with graffiti.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jane Golden paints \u201dLife in the City,\u201d on the Spring Garden Street Bridge, one of the first murals painted by the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network in 1984. Young people from the Mantua neighborhood assisted in the painting of the mural, many of whom were graffiti writers at the time. (Courtesy of Temple University Libraries, Urban Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as part of the Philadelphia Inquirer Collection)<\/p>\n

The mayor wanted the entire 700-foot bridge repainted with a mural, and quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said \u2018If you can do this mural in three weeks, you could have a full-time job,\u2019\u201d Golden recalled. \u201cI wanted that full-time job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had all the kids from Mantua, a crew of like 100 kids, mostly graffiti writers. It was so disorganized. We had a sketch and they kept deviating from the sketch,\u201d she said. \u201cThen we had this big dedication with all the news teams there. Wilson Goode looked to me and goes, \u2018Well, I guess I owe you something.\u2019 That full-time job. I went from $12,500 to $20,000. I was so excited.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding a successor<\/p>\n

In 1996, the Anti-Graffiti Network was absorbed into the city\u2019s Parks and Recreation Department, becoming the Graffiti Abatement Program and the Paint Voucher Program to prevent and clean up graffiti. Mural Arts was spun off as an independent organization supported by public and private funds.<\/p>\n

In 2016, it changed its name to Mural Arts Philadelphia. It now has a $16 million annual budget, less than a quarter of which comes from the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt changes lives,\u201d Mayor Cherelle Parker said. \u201cAs we honor Jane\u2019s remarkable impact on Philadelphia\u2019s social and physical landscape, we look ahead with excitement to the future of Mural Arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker moved Mural Arts from Parks and Recreation into the office of arts and culture, now called Creative PHL.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m both saddened and excited for Jane,\u201d said Val Gay, Philadelphia\u2019s chief cultural officer who oversees Mural Arts in City Hall. \u201cBut I\u2019m saddened for all of us, in that she is a legend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ValPhiladelphia\u2019s Chief Cultural Officer Val Gay poses in front of the mural that wraps around the Markward Recreation Center. The program that created the mural is intended to help young people at risk of becoming the victims or perpetrators of violence. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

The growth of Mural Arts over four decades can be attributed, in part, to Golden\u2019s raw energy. She has been known to intimidate elected officials who follow her at dedication events because they cannot match the same degree of energy at the podium.<\/p>\n

Gay believes Mural Arts is stable enough to carry on without its founder\u2019s infectious energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have the benefit of two things: One, we have the benefit of a personality, but we also have a strong organization,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes they don\u2019t always go together. Mural Arts is a vibrant and well-run organization with a great staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Lovell is not so certain. In her office at the Visitors\u2019 Center, she said tourism is driven, in part, by Philadelphia\u2019s public art, of which murals play a huge role. She cannot see a way forward for Mural Arts without Golden.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what Mural Arts is without Jane. It is Jane and Jane is it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt makes me anxious because I love the organization. I love the program. It makes me very nervous about what the future holds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The search for a new executive director has not yet begun. Board Chair Hope Comisky said a search committee has formed with the understanding that finding someone with the same characteristics as Golden is unrealistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t do that. We\u2019re not putting any parameters around who that person will be,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why it really is important \u2013 and we\u2019re delighted \u2013 that Jane has agreed to continue at least for another three months after the official ending of her term to help us navigate through all of the issues we may encounter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The origins of Mural Arts Philadelphia Mural Arts Philadelphia was born inside the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network, a project…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88,72638,72639],"class_list":["post-110896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-jane-golden","tag-mural-arts-philadelphia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}