Philadelphia Creates Printmaking Mural for America’s 250th

Philadelphia's legacy as "Mural Capital of the World" will take on newfound meaning this year as the city prepares to celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States. In recognition of this milestone, the city of Philadelphia is launching Printmaking by the People, its largest community art project, to create a mural centered on printmaking and the Declaration of Independence.

Mural Arts is leading the project, which combines diverse printmaking techniques — collages, stamps, monotypes, and linocuts — to create hundreds of prints that will form a cohesive mural.

Artists Phillip Adams and Rhonda Babb are collaborating to translate the assembled prints into the final mural. 

"This is the hand of so many different people expressing what they want to see and what they believe," Adams said in a statement shared with CBS Philadelphia. 

The project emphasizes community voices, inviting residents to reflect on what the Declaration of Independence would say today and to express contemporary "rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

"I like to think of it as like a postcard to the country — of how we're feeling right now in this moment in history and what we're looking forward to, going forward," Mural Arts Public Project Specialist Lindsey Rosenberg stated to CBS Philadelphia.

More than 1,000 people produced approximately 500 prints, with themes and words collected and color-coded to shape the mural's narrative.

While the mural's ultimate location is still being determined, the installation will begin over the summer, near the Fourth of July. Two hundred of the prints will be featured in a free exhibition at Parkway Central Library, opening April 16.