Philly Painting has begun!

I was happy to get to meet Dre of Haas & Hahn on Monday night at the Knight Arts Challenge Winners event and talk to him a bit about the Philly Painting project that he's working on with the Mural Arts Program. They've started work on the project and I cannot wait to see the outcome. I plan to go check out the progress and will post more info here when I do. It's so great to see things like this taking place in the neighborhood...Be sure to check out their favela painting project, if you haven't seen it already.

Philly Painting is a giant neighborhood beautification project set in North Philadelphia, around the Germantown and Lehigh Avenues. The goal is to mobilize the community to completely transform the commercial corridor and bring a new look to their neighborhood: A social and artistic experiment of urban acupuncture, beautification, and economic stimulus of unprecedented scale.

Haas and Hahn in North Philadelphia

I know I posted about Haas and Hahn before but I got an email the other day about the project they're starting in North Philadelphia and am excited to see it happen.

Their work in Rio de Janeiro (above) was amazing and I can't wait to see what they do in Philadelphia.

From the Mural Arts Program:

Renowned Dutch artists Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn have settled into their new Philadelphia-based residence in North Philadelphia and have begun engaging local residents and business owners in conceptualizing a pilot project, Philly Painting. These exciting works of art will be installed between the 2500 and 2800 blocks of Germantown Avenue in North Philadelphia.

This project will transform the facades of a selection of buildings along Germantown Avenue with assistance from a painting team hired from the surrounding neighborhood.

Once the work around Germantown and Lehigh Avenues is completed, the artists will create two more large scale mural projects in Center City and Manayunk.


Image from here.