At 47th and Chestnut Streets in West Philadelphia yesterday, officials dedicated that mural - by a black artist and a white one - and declared that it captured the essence of community conversations that focused on similarities instead of differences.

Titled "Bringing Race Into Dialogue for Greater Engagement," or "Bridge," the brightly colored artwork depicts people of different races working together to scale a mountain.

At the top of the mountain, a woman and a child shine a beacon toward a river and landscape.

"What you see here is many conversations and dialogue," said Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program, which produces murals throughout Philadelphia. "What's great about a project like this is that you get to hear another person's opinion."

The mural was painted by Parris Stancell and David McShane with assistance from Josh Smith, all of the Mural Arts Program.

The mural, funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, was finished in about six weeks, officials said, while the process from dialogue to completion took about a year. Participants included representatives of the Mural Arts Program, the Urban League of Greater Philadelphia, Leadership Philadelphia, and other groups.

Pat Coulter, president of the Urban League chapter, said, "We hope that [the mural] will show the interrelatedness and interconnectedness of people and how this is really not about one group or another group, but is actually about us all and how together we can really move forward."

McShane, who is white, said working with fellow artist Stancell, who is black, reflected their distinct thoughts about art.

"When you have two people of different races come together to work on a project, we come at it from a different direction," he said.

"We both learned and grew a lot from that," McShane said. "Our experience was kind of a microcosm of what the project was about."

Golden said the dedication was the first of about 135 public-art projects planned for the city this year. Her program has produced 2,801 murals in the city since the program was founded 1984, she said.