Collection takes a backstage look at key African-American-themed murals

How do you curate a museum that spans an entire city?

With more than 3,000 murals, Philadelphia's 27-year-old Mural Arts Program has responded in two parts. It started with the successful Mural Mile, a program launched last summer that facilitates free self-guided tours of 17 murals in the area from 6th to Broad streets and Market to Bainbridge streets.

The next stage of the curatorial initiative, the Albert M. Greenfield African American Iconic Images Mural Collection, launches today at the African American Museum, with audio tours narrated by Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, drummer for The Roots, starting Saturday. With the help of artists, scholars and community leaders, the audio guide provides in-depth histories of 21 murals culled from around the city by curators who consider these artworks synonymous with African-American history in Philadelphia. Twenty-six more murals are included in the collection, and their stories can be accessed online at www.muralarts.org/iconicimages.

After 27 years of public service - beautifying poor neighborhoods, improving community image and giving a sense of purpose to young adults with criminal backgrounds - officials of the Mural Arts Program decided it was time to take the public behind the scenes. With the Iconic Images tour, Mural Arts can tell the stories of how these paintings came to be, and what they meant - and still mean - to their communities.

"We're beginning to look at our work not just as random pieces of artwork in a city, but a cohesive collection," said Mural Arts Program founder and director Jane Golden, who sees the Iconic Images Collection as the city's "autobiography."

Over the past two months, Mural Arts Program researchers made it their mission to fill in the blanks, interviewing hundreds of people who were involved in the making of the murals. The information they gleaned helped create the audio guide and the supplementary information available on the website. More than fodder for tourists, the Iconic Images Collection is envisioned as a teaching tool. Come spring, ancillary lesson plans will go up on the website to complement the murals.

At 40th Street and Lancaster Avenue, a sepia-toned mural of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. waving to supporters commemorates the Aug. 3, 1965, address that King delivered to 10,000 people on that corner. Joseph Walker, who led the effort to create the mural, was 9 years old when Dr. King made that speech. "I can remember very, very vaguely fighting my way up through the crowd, trying to get to see what the big fuss was," he says on the tour's audio guide.

According to the guide, Walker fell prey to the culture of "gangs" and "turf wars" in his neighborhood as he got older. Eventually, Walker said, he found redemption in King's message and, once reformed at 21, wanted to give back. He founded a community organization with other ex-gang members called the HUB (Haverford, Union and Brandywine - their old turf) Coalition and, 20 years later, approached the Mural Arts Program with the MLK project proposal. It was completed in 2009.

Painted by Donald Gensler in 2004, "Holding Grandmother's Quilt," at 39th and Aspen streets, features younger residents keeping a quilt steady as a community matriarch, Ruth Jones, stitches.

Initially too modest to agree to be painted, Jones now is treated as a sort of a local celebrity. Jones, who sits on her porch when the weather permits, was once approached by a couple of New York tourists who heard she lived nearby and wanted to shake her hand. "People are amazed, you know, that someone living so close is on that mural," Jones says on the audio guide.

The Mural Arts Program has a commitment that extends far beyond art or even community development. "You can't let other people create history for you," Golden said.

"As our city grows and evolves, we need to hold on to what is really the backbone of the city, and that is the people who live here. The murals are really representative of those people, and through them the legacy is carried on."

Contact staff writer Daniella Wexler at 215-854-5262 or dwexler@phillynews.com.