Philadelphia awarded $1 million grant to address rising gun violence through public artworks

In an announcement made Thursday, Philly was one of eight cities awarded a $1 million grant for a new public art and community outreach project. The grant is part of the Public Art Challenge, led by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Bloomberg Philanthropies.

“The arts have an incredible power to inspire creativity and spark collaboration on some of the most pressing urban challenges,” Bloomberg said in a news release. “These eight projects will help foster community action on issues like public health, climate change, homelessness, and more. We look forward to working with the winners as they bring their projects to life.”

Philadelphia was chosen from a pool of more than 150 cities from 40 states. The other winning cities are Atlanta, Baltimore, Honolulu, Houston, Orlando, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The artists helping lead the multicity initiative are Baltimore-born Derrick Adams and St. Louis-based Juan William Chavez, with more artists to be selected in the coming months.

Philadelphia’s initiative, “Healing Verse Germantown: The Streets are Talking,” will address the city’s challenges with gun violence, which have risen significantly over the past few years. In a January 2023 poll by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, 88% of residents said that gun violence had a negative impact on the quality of life in their neighborhood.

For the project, Kelly Lee, chief cultural officer for the city, said Germantown residents will be invited to a series of workshops to write poems about their experiences with gun violence. Through partnerships with local businesses and nonprofit groups, these works will be “translated into temporary works of public artwork installed throughout Germantown.”

There will also be an expansion of the existing Healing Verse Poetry Line, a project created by local artist Trapeta Mayson. The phone line will be adapted to feature poems written by participants of “Healing Verse Germantown.”

Lee said the grant will also be used to compensate Mayson and fellow lead artist Yolanda Wisher, who will focus on the poetry workshops, expanded phone line, and art exhibits. Public art coordinator Rob Blackson will curate and install the temporary public art exhibition with the city’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy.

Compensation will also go to partner organizations and collaborators who will be announced throughout the project’s two-year term. The remaining funds will go toward hiring staff and marketing the campaign.

Bloomberg Public Art Challenge manager Stephanie Dockery is confident the project will transform Germantown and other neighborhoods across Philadelphia. “Bringing people together and having public art beautify your city is a way to build a coalition in a way that other measures can’t,” Dockery told The Inquirer.

“Public art is beautiful, and attracts people to sites or neighborhoods where there was none. It really revitalizes our cities, and we’re looking forward to doing that again with Philadelphia.”

For more information on the public art challenge, visit publicartchallenge.bloomberg.org.