Public Art in Philadelphia

There are so many sculptures and murals in Philadelphia, it would be impossible for me to sum it all up in a nutshell. While you are here, walking our streets, you will not be able to avoid it! So if you're interested in what you will see, I thought I would give you a few links to webpages that do a good job of providing more information.

You can't walk two blocks without seeing one of many murals painted on the wall of a building. The Mural Arts Program has been the major force behind the murals all over Philadelphia. Check out their webpage or the database of Philly's murals available here. Every Wednesday and Saturday at 11:00am, the Mural Arts Program conducts a two-hour trolley tour of several murals (there's no way they could get to all of them). The trolley leaves from the Independence Visitor's Center at 6th and Market. There are only two tours a week, so I would advise getting their early to buy your ticket (which is $24 for adults), or even making a reservation. If you are interested, you can find out more about it here.

As for public sculpture, there are the things that show up on postcards-- Robert Indiana's LOVE sculptures near City Hall and on Penn Campus (yes, we have two!), Claus Oldenberg's clothespin (also near city hall) and button (on Penn's campus), Rodin's "Thinker" outside the Rodin Museum, the various sculptures by three generations of Calders-- I could go on and on. But even as an art historian living in Philly for ten years, I didn't know there was a Lichtenstein on our streets, or that the bolt of lightning at the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge is by Isamu Noguchi! The best way to get an idea of what's here, whether you want to search by artist, location, or print out a walking tour, is to look at a website like this one.

As with everything in Philly, sometimes the best things are the ones that take a little effort to find. So keep your eyes open-- there's a lot to see!

The Fisher Fine Arts Library

I spent years working and studying the Fisher Fine Arts Library, and it still is a breathtaking site to me. If there's one building on Penn Campus that you see, I'd say this should be the one. The Library is closed on weekends in the summer, but is open from 9am-5pm Mon-Thurs, and 9-5 on Fri.

The Library's official address is 220 South 34th Street, but if you walk down 34th you'll only see it from the back-- still, you can't miss it. It looks very RED and very Gothic. You need to go up the stairs on the West side of 34th Street (toward the Green), and walk around to the front stairs. Once in the lobby, go straight through to the library doors. You'll be immediately up against a turnstile-- so lean over and ask the front desk person if visitors are allowed to come in. Sometimes you can get in with a driver's license and by signing in-- but if not, just having a look around from the door is enough! It's quite a sight, and only takes 5 minutes. Pay special attention to the windows! Oh, and if you saw the movie Philadelphia with Tom Hanks, you may recognize this as the Law Library-- I guess the real law school library wasn't pretty enough, so they came here and dressed up the art books to look like law journals, and changed the lamps (weird). It's probably the most beautiful library I've ever been to... see what you think!