Tracking
Philadelphia's Many Murals
Via the Web
A
new web site created by the Cartographic
Modeling Laboratory at Penn is being
launched to document the beauty and
diversity of Philadelphia's 2,500
murals.
In
partnership with the Philadelphia
Department of Recreation's Mural
Arts Program, the project is part
of Penn's Neighborhood Information
System that focuses on vacant properties
and neighborhood change in Philadelphia.
Community development efforts to reclaim
vacant land and buildings can be easily
traced by studying the growth of murals.
"A
trash-filled vacant lot may be a liability,
but it also represents an opportunity
for redevelopment," said Marilou "ML" Wernecke,
managing director of the Cartographic
Modeling Laboratory. "Groups
like the Mural Arts Program turn blank
walls adjacent to vacant lots into
canvases and transform the lots from
eyesores to community assets in the
process."
The
database contains project descriptions,
photos and artists' profiles
and is accessible to the general public.
With the query and mapping tools,
visitors to the web site can search
for murals by theme, artist's
name, zip code or year of completion.
Additional information such as background
data, photographs, artists' biographies
and links to other works by the same
artists can be retrieved by clicking
on a thumbnail of each individual
mural.
The
Cartographic Modeling Lab is a joint
venture of GSFA and the School of
Social Work and specializes in spatial
analysis to better understand urban
and social problems. The Neighborhood
Information System is funded by the
William Penn Foundation and the City
of Philadelphia. The new web site
can be found at www.cml.upenn.edu/murals.
Almanac, Vol. 49, No. 32, May 6, 2003
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