Jane Golden- artist living with Lupus

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Neighborhood Murals Create A Ripple Effect

Philadelphia - Jane Golden, director of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (MAP), has lived on both coasts. But when she drives over the Margate bridge in New Jersey, Ms. Golden knows she's home.

After first painting murals in California in the late 1970s and co-founding the Public Art Foundation in Los Angeles during the early 1980s, Ms. Golden returned to her family's home in Margate in 1983. The usually energetic Ms. Golden was "depressed" after flu-like symptoms and rashes on her face resulted in a diagnosis of lupus. "I had to face my mortality for the first time," she said. "I was weak and couldn't go back to L.A."

Her father, Sanford, knew that the pain in her wrists was especially frustrating for an artist. "When Janie came back from California," he said, "she couldn't hold a paint brush." But her mother, Gloria, encouraged her to keep pushing through the illness. "Don't give in to the lupus," she told her daughter.

So Ms. Golden started painting a mural of Atlantic City's Boardwalk on the side of one of her parents' China Outlet/Gourmet Garage stores in Somers Point, N.J. In 1984, a friend told her about a part-time position, working with youth in a six-week program through Philadelphia's Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN). Ms. Golden was offered - and accepted - the morning job, working with at-risk children, and continued painting at the shore in the afternoons.

"I didn't feel comfortable with myself or my life until I started working at Anti-Graffiti," she said. Then, it was almost instantaneous joy."

In her book Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell, co-authored with Robin Rice and Monica Yant Kinney, Ms. Golden said, "Murals have been helpful in combating the chronic pain, because I love the work and I can immerse myself in it. The doctors complain that I push myself a bit too much, but they concur that I'm the healthiest lupus patient they have."

The sequel More Philadelphia Murals followed. This week, a book signing and celebration will be held for the recent release of My North Philly: Neighborhoods. Murals. Stories. (See box for details.)

The six-week PAGN program continued with Ms. Golden at the helm until 1996, when it evolved into Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program (MAP) - a leader in the United States, with more than 2,000 public murals.

Since 2000, Philadelphia officially recognized the citywide celebration of Mural Arts Month in October, including trolley tours, lunch programs, exhibits, community paint days and mural dedications. MAP also sponsors year-round events such as workshops and educational classes, as well as biking and walking tours.

The growing grassroots organization now employs more than 300 artists, with countless volunteers - including young children and seniors - providing additional support. Each mural takes about two months to complete, ranges between three and eight stories high, and costs up to $15,000. MAP creates approximately 150 indoor and outdoor murals every year.

Ms. Golden first designed PAGN to work with graffiti writers, who were "tagging" every corner of Philadelphia streets in the 1980s. "It was daunting because there were 500 to 1,000 graffiti writers. People said, 'good luck,'" she recalled.

"The hard part is to redirect someone's energy. But I got the graffiti writers to sign an amnesty pledge" - promising not to use spray paint, which is breaking the law - and "do scrub time. Then, they would be eligible for employment and could get a promise for a full-time job," she said.

Ms. Golden, who heard the sound of spray-paint cans clicking in the graffiti artists' backpacks thought, "I needed to talk to them. I had a responsibility to understand them."

So one night, when 10 graffiti artists - including Cool Earl, Baby Rock, and Knife - knocked on the door of her home to discuss art, she saw their "amazing drawings in black sketch books. They had a great sense of design, even though they didn't take classes at a recreation or community center," Ms. Golden said.

"When I asked them where they pictured themselves in a decade, they said, 'dead or in Graterford.' I had to help with something rigorous and real. It is our obligation to help young people in a way that will create change."

Because Ms. Golden talked to these graffiti artists about their interest in abstract art and encouraged them to attend her art classes, they began sharing other interests too. "I took them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and to poetry readings," she said.

After hearing the poet Sonia Sonchez, Knife followed in the same footsteps. Today, other graffiti artists are computer engineers, barbershop owners and designers. "The list goes on and on," Ms. Golden said. "It costs $20,000 to $30,000 to keep an inmate at Graterford but only pennies working on murals."

MAP currently has about a $5 million budget, with $800,000 from the city and the balance from corporations, individuals and private foundations.

"People were starved, and neighborhoods were neglected. When I was invited to community meetings and asked what they wanted on a wall - because murals are a partnership - residents couldn't believe I was asking. I vividly remember these leaders trying to create change on a shoestring," she said.

"So when we first began, I had energy and spirit, even though we were a motley crew with bad paint. But good things are contagious," Ms. Golden added passionately.

"The tipping point helps others do more. The power of a mural is creating something beautiful on a blank wall, which is a catalyst for positive change," she said.

"It's been a privilege for me to work with community leaders and provide people with hope. Everyone has a right to art in life," Ms. Golden said emphatically. "I want to replicate this program around the country and create a ripple effect."