Mural Arts Program gets a $500,000 grant

The Mural Arts Program has received a $500,000 matching grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help fund a program assisting those suffering from behavioral, addiction, and mental health problems.

The grant, given to the program's nonprofit fund-raising unit - the Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates - will support the ongoing Porch Light Initiative, which focuses on three North Philadelphia communities.

According to a Mural Arts Program statement, the arts agency will work with the city Department of Behavioral Health and Mental Retardation Services to draw clients into art-based community projects.

The initiative envisions nine community projects created and operated with the assistance of three social service agencies: Project HOME's Rowan Homes, Sobriety Through Out Patient, and Association Puertorriquenos en March.

More than 1,000 people are expected to participate in the program over the next four years, the arts program said.

Jane Golden, head of the program, said that the Johnson grant, matched with local finders, will enable the mural program to deepen its involvement with city behavioral services and health agencies.

She said she hoped "to create a national model for the intersection of community based public art and public health."

The program has already produced success, she said: "We truly have seen the transformative power art making can have on the health of a community."