Not just art, but a renewal of life

Nov. 15, 2008
Chris Satullo
Inquirer columnist

Here's what Jennie Shanker wishes you'd remember about "bad" neighborhoods.

They are full of good people.

Good people who are the likeliest victims of the neglect and chaos, the crime and the grime.

The rest of us tend to forget that. Our viewpoint is shaped by the chalk outlines and flashing sirens of film at 11. We see only the dysfunction, not the decency; the pathologies, not the possibilities. We latch onto crime stats and steer clear - so we miss the prayerful striving and stubborn hope.

Here's the saddest thing: Even the residents of a place can end up seeing it through our prism of fear, scorn and apathy.

Who or what can help us see a shunned corner in a new light?

An artist? A piece of art, perhaps, one that insists that even a mud-brown block of North Philadelphia can be a place where trees grow and birds take thrilling flight?

Jennie Shanker is an artist, a sculptor. She's spent the last year, with many helping hands, showing what art can do: Repair our vision, rediscover the good that labels like "the badlands" obscure.

It's a fair bet you've never been to John F. Hartranft School in North Philadelphia's Fairhill section.

Shanker, who now teaches at the University of the Arts after years at Temple's Tyler school, recalls the first time she went there: "The place looked abandoned, terrible, like a prison. But the thing about artists is, when we see something like that, we see potential."

Want to see potential? Go to Hartranft today, Seventh and Cumberland, and see what has blossomed at this elementary school, thanks to a yearlong project of the Mural Arts Program - with Shanker as lead artist, and dozens of students from Hartranft, Tyler and MAP's Mural Corps helping to imagine, design, paint, mold, glaze, glue and plant. (You can go, virtually, by way of Shanker's project blog at http://muralartstylerhartranft.blogspot.com)

Suddenly, a forest grows in Fairhill. Some of the trees are real, planted to restore the simple but powerful succor of shade. Others are riotously colorful creations, inside and outside the school, chief among them a dazzling ceramic tree on the back wall. This centerpiece, called The Tree Is a City, tucks into its multicolored leaves all kinds of wildlife that still can be found in North Philly for those with eyes to see. It is a seek-and-find that should teach
generations at Hartranft how to savor the green life surviving inside urban bustle.

Another mural features a tree whose leaves are ceramic casts of the hands of more than 150 students and community members. As the leaves "fall," they morph into birds and take flight. Inside the cafeteria, a mural of Philadelphia's skyline - "Some of the kids asked, 'What's that, New York?' " Shanker recalls - reminds first-graders that they live in a city bristling with possibility.

All around the building, other efforts reclaim the space for people, nature and beauty: birdhouses that mirror the shapes of nearby houses, a play space with butterfly chairs, several new gardens.

The project cost about $120,000. "That's a minimal investment for such significant change," said Shanker, whose father, Albert, was the famous teachers union leader.

The changes are not just visual. Human behavior responds to a blossoming of color.

As Shanker and others worked on the murals through baking summer days, "Parents would come by and tell their kids, 'See what's happening here,' and tell them it was to be respected." Vandalism at the school is down, and what little occurs never touches the murals.

Principal Judith McMonagle says teachers report that kids' behavior has grown better: "I always knew there was much beauty inside John F. Hartranft School. We deserved some on the outside, too," she said.

Shanker said she loved making friends with the neighbors who'd stop by to check progress and chat.

One of them, Rose Jennings, captured the promise of public art at the murals' dedication on Oct. 30:

"Thank Jesus for bringing all this beauty to this barren wall. Now, at recess, the children are more civil and peaceful. At night, no one sets the Dumpsters on fire any more. Now, we all must be watchmen to protect this wonderful thing that has been done."