La Salle Presents Jane Golden, Director of Mural Arts Project, with Honorary Degree for Efforts to Bring Art and Hope to the City

Jane Golden, Director of the City of Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Project, was presented with an honorary degree at the University’s Academic Convocation Ceremony, and transfixed the audience with her message of using art as a means to heal, unite and bridge.

Jane Golden, Director of the city's Mural Arts Project (CENTER), receives her Honorary Degree from La Salle University President Brother Michael McGinniss, F.S.C., and Dr. Sioban Conaty, La Salle professor of fine arts, who sponsored Golden for the degree.

“Jane Golden believes that art has the power to transform people’s lives,” said Sioban Conaty, Ph.D., an assistant professor of fine arts at La Salle who sponsored her for the degree. “For nearly 25 years, she has created and nurtured the conditions for making such transformations possible. In 1981, she set her sights on using art to help youth. She co-founded the Public Art Foundation in Los Angeles, an organization designed to offer mural painting as a way for young people on probation to earn community service credits.”

“Her responsibilities and accomplishments are both artistic and administrative,” added Conaty. “As the coordinator of citywide art programs, she oversees after school and summer programs that serve over 2,000 children and teens across Philadelphia. In addition, Ms. Golden, over the last three years, has created a large social services unit that serves young people who are chronically truant, first-time offenders and young people and adults who are incarcerated. The Mural Arts Program also offers special initiatives. Two years ago a special program called Healing Walls was created. Here victims of crime work on murals with inmate artists at Graterford Prison. And just this last year, Mural Arts started working at the Youth Study Center and St. Gabriel’s Hall, a detention center for young offenders run by the Christian Brothers. Here Mural Arts runs weekly programs and challenges the young people to give back to their communities through the creation of public art.”

After receiving the honorary degree from La Salle President Brother Michael McGinniss, Ph.D., F.S.C., Golden then addressed the audience of Dean’s List students and their parents.

“We began painting murals, three story murals, throughout different neighborhoods. I was able to experience the power of art. I saw the impact not only on individual young people, but also on neighborhoods,” she said. “Here in areas where the only visible city workers were the police, we began to deliver public art as a city service. The murals we created were often the only signs of hope on a decaying block, or a crime-ridden street.”

Art is a universal language,” she said. “Murals have a way of bringing people together in a way that is unique. In Grays Ferry, a neighborhood in south Philadelphia, there was terrible racial strife in 1998 and 1999. We decided to do a peace mural here. To do this we had to bring together residents – black and white. In spite of the many warned us not to work there, we proceeded. It wasn’t easy. It took months and months. But today the mural we painted, the Peace Wall, composed entirely of the shades and colors of the people’s hands who live in Grays Ferry, continues to stand as a beacon in that neighborhood. It is a landmark valued by the whole community.”

“My work is challenging, daunting, and sometimes overwhelming. Resources are scarce and problems are plentiful. But the artists and staff of the Mural Arts Program consider ourselves fortunate, because we wake up in the morning to do work that we love and we believe is worth doing,” she said.

In summing up, she told the La Salle students, “In order to find your life’s work, you may have to invent your own category. When you find work that opens your heart and ignites your creativity and spirit, follow it fearlessly. Finally, have faith it is possible to find work that matches your gifts, that you love to do, and, of most importance, makes a difference in the world. We all have our distinctive gifts, talents and strengths. We can all make an impact, so look for the opportunity to make your life count.”