Photo: Philadelphia residents are encouraged to express their feelings for their neighborhood in creative ways by artist Hunter Franks. Credit: Hunter Franks.

Hunter Franks, an artist and founder of the Neighborhood Postcard Project and League of Creative Interventionists, is in Philadelphia for three weeks using participatory art to create connections between people and neighborhoods with Knight Foundation support. 

Related LinkS

“Artist uses creativity to build community connections” by Hunter Franks on Knight Blog

Press release: “New creative placemaking project led by Hunter Franks to inspire civic participation with more than $55,000 from Knight Foundation” 

Tall, slender houses squeeze one another all the way down the narrow block. Kale and lettuce sprout up from community gardens that used to be vacant lots. Murals fill empty walls with color. Porches transform into public living rooms. You can walk almost anywhere from here. West Philadelphia’s Belmont neighborhood is intimate.

I met my neighbor who is fixing up his previously abandoned house, within the first 15 minutes I was there. I say hello to every person I see on their porch because they say hello back. One night, two women yelled and fought outside my window. Today I was asked for my input on relationships by two friends, a man and woman, lightheartedly debating one another on their front stairs. Truth is, I see all of life because it is all there to see. There is something beautiful about that. In the good and the bad, in just seven days, in the fifth largest city in the United States, the Belmont neighborhood already feels like home.    

But to many people in Philadelphia, Belmont is simply known as dangerous and scary. In my three weeks here, I am working with organizations and residents to use art and storytelling to help others see that there is more to the neighborhood than they see on the news. There is beauty and value in the Belmont neighborhood. The first project I am doing is the Neighborhood Postcard Project. The project collects stories of why people love their neighborhood and that postcard is then mailed to a random person in a different neighborhood to create connections between people and communities. The goal is to break down stereotypes and create a lightweight way for residents from different neighborhoods to learn about each other.

Last Saturday, I partnered with the People’s Emergency Center, a great organization that supports homeless women and their children and strengthens the West Philadelphia community, during one of their weekly events to collect stories. Residents were excited to share their neighborhood with other Philadelphians and many people mentioned that they love their neighborhood because people look out for each other.   

Although Belmont faces challenges of blight and poverty, the social ties that exist between neighbors here is extraordinary. I will be leveraging those ties and partnering with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program to create Philadelphia’s first entirely crowdsourced mural at Belmont Charter School. Residents from neighborhoods near Belmont will be invited to participate in the completion of the mural with randomly distributed invite cards, complete with a small tube of paint and paintbrush attached. This project creates a shared space and effort to create a piece of art in the neighborhood, while bringing residents from nearby neighborhoods to explore Belmont.    

I will also be establishing a Philadelphia chapter of the League of Creative Interventionists during my three weeks here. I’ve had the chance to meet some people doing amazing work and am excited for the Philadelphia chapter to carry out interventions in public space. While Philadelphia is a city of distinctly different neighborhoods, the city has great shared spaces that feel just as intimate as its neighborhoods. There is great potential to create interactions and connections between people from different backgrounds, cultures, and lifestyles in these shared spaces and I am excited to see what will come out of two more weeks here.

To see what else is planned in Philadelphia, check out www.creativeinterventionists.com/philadelphia and follow along on social media with #createphilly