Philadelphia Assembled — Everybody Colors

Philadelphia Assembled is an expansive project that tells a story of radical community building and active resistance through the personal and collective narratives that make up Philadelphia’s changing urban fabric. These narratives will be explored through a collaborative effort between the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a team of individuals, collectives, and organizations as they experiment with multiple methodologies for amplifying and connecting relationships in Philadelphia’s transforming landscape. Challenging, inspiring, and as big as the city, Philadelphia Assembled asks: how can we collectively shape our futures?

I was invited to co-lead the illustrating of a massive 140’ mural that spanned the length of the exhibition with Charlene Griffith of Wholistic Arts . This City Panorama visualized the complex network of people, histories, and aesthetics that is PHLA. Each panel suggested a new framework through which to see the shifting landscape of the city, addressing the histories that are often made invisible by dominant systems and linear understandings of time. These ranged in scale from the personal, to the local, to the global. Through a number of scheduled panorama workshops, we invited collaborators and visitors to contribute to the artwork and fill in what was missing.

*Text from Philadelphia Assembled