Category: Writing Blog

Writing this paper was hard. I had so much trouble starting. I finally decided what I wanted my body paragraphs to be and made a plan. I found good sources full of information between the books and websites I used.I really had trouble with the images and inserting them and getting them to fit where I wanted them. First in word for the Canvas-submitted version, then on this blog. I decided to cut some of the images I had used in the original version and just insert one image in between paragraphs for the blog. This made it cleaner and less of a hassle. Some of my indentation translates to the WordPress website while others didn't. I had fun at some points when writing the final draft because I felt like I was on a role. At other times I was stuck and definitely was not having fun. Over all I enjoyed learning and writing about the Mural Arts Philadelphia program. My respect for the program has grown after reading about their mission and all that they do.

I'm really glad I chose to write about Mural Arts Philadelphia because it was a subject I'm interested in. Once I got on a role of writing it came a lot easier. I really enjoyed reading and learning about how the program helps people in the community. It's awesome to hear that over 300 people are employed every year because of the program, and that they let kids get involved by volunteering. All of this creates a great sense of community. I'd love to go back to Philadelphia and get the chance to see all of the murals that I didn't see, since there are over 3,300!

I had gathered a bunch of quotes from all of my sources that I thought were important either about the Philadelphia Mural Arts (PMA) program or about art in general. I like to start my papers with a quote because it gives me something to think about. I decided to use “Mural Arts Philadelphia is the nation’s largest public art program, dedicated to the belief that art ignites change” because that quote is what PMA was founded on, the belief that art ignites change. This is relevant for all public art in that most often it's purpose is to ignite change. I was able to connect this to the Mexican muralists Orozco, Rivera and Siqueros because their artwork was very political and ignited change during the Mexican Revolution.

With the bits of important information I had taken from sources, I was able to develop each of those ideas and then put them all together later.

Once I had decided on a research paper topic, and had told Professor Moody, he suggested some sources. He sent me a few titles of books that are in the school library. This was actually the first time I'd used the school library and realized "wow, we actually have a lot of books". I checked them out and they had a lot of good information.

A main site I used for information was the Philadelphia Mural Arts project website. It has pictures of all the art, information about the program, shows the people behind the artwork and information about the people behind the program. Some other sites I used were news articles I found (New Hampshire Public Radio and NBC), Blog posts (Adina Allen a Rabbi), and quotes from other artists (Judith Baca).

All of these sources have come together to help me with my research paper on the Philadelphia Mural Arts program.

Deciding on the research paper topic wasn't hard at all. I had gone on tour in the New England area with my a cappella group during Christmas break, and one of the cities I was most fascinated with was Philadelphia. Though I only got to spend a couple of hours there I thought it was amazing. I was in awe of just how many murals they had. Every corner I turned there was another HUGE mural. I love exploring cities and photographing murals so this was such a thrill for me.

When I heard that we got to choose the topic of our final research project I knew I wanted to look into the Philadelphia Mural Arts project. I already had some pictures so I knew I wouldn't have to worry about any copyright infringements. It is a topic I am passionate about therefore I knew it would be a good topic to do a paper on.