Music-themed murals downtown are uniting the community
The mural project in downtown Philadelphia is proving to be a very unifying experience for the entire community says Shawn Byars, one of the organizers.
“Since we started this mural, we’ve had incredible participation,” Byars said. “The city has been very supportive and we’ve had an average of 30 people a day helping us. We even had up to 96 people in one day.”
Since May they have been working on the mural on the side of the Porterhouse restaurant on Walnut Street. The mural honors Dolly Parton and her song “Wildflowers” ahead of her coming to the Ellis Theater for a performance this summer.
The mural project was Marty Stuart’s idea and Byars is heading up the actual work.
“I talked to Marty and other friends, and since we’re trying to spruce things up along with the Congress of Country Music, we thought the murals would be a great thing to add to the community,” Byars said. “Marty wanted me to head the project, and he had the idea that all the murals should be of flowers, and each one would connect to a particular country song, whether it had a flower in the title or referenced flowers in the lyrics.”
Byars said she connected with some professional muralists through the Meridian Museum of Art Collective and invited them to Philadelphia.
“They’ve been incredible,” she said. “They know what they’re doing and are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met,” she said.
One of their best assets is that they’re so personable and they invite the community to participate and paint with them, she said. “This project has been a lot easier and more fun than I expected thanks to them.”
Byars said work began in May and should be complete very soon.
“We’re also going to paint the lyrics of the song along with the flowers, and add a QR code,” Byars said. “If you scan the code, you can see butterflies flying across the mural through your phone. It is very cool. This mural is extremely gorgeous, huge, bright, and happy.”
A QR code is a machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares, typically used for storing URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone. When the camera is pointed at the QR code an app opens the website on the phone.
Ideas for future murals are currently being taken and everyone is feeling good about it, Byars said.
For more information about the mural project, contact Byars at (601) 934-1874.