Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program hosts The Wall Ball

On a picture perfect last night in May Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program hosted the 8th Annual Wall Ball at VIE.

Starting in 1984 The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program has created over 3,200 murals and works of art.  Philadelphia is now known as the “City of Murals.”  Their mission is to unite artists and communities through a collaborative process, rooting in the tradition of mural-making, to create art that transforms public spaces and individual lives.  As Jane Golden, Executive Director of the Mural Arts Program, said while thanking the crowd for coming, the Mural Arts golden rule  is “when we create art with each other and for each other, the force of life can triumph.”

I was honored to be  invited to the attend the event and be there for the Red Carpet excitement.  The highlight of the red carpet arrivals of the Wall Ball’s honorees and Grammy Award Winning Hip Hop band, The Roots!  Stopping for interviews and pictures, these guys really love Philly and we love them!  When I asked Black Thought, MC and founder of the Roots, what he liked to do in his hometown of Philly he just laughed and said there is so much to do, but he prefers the low-key events.  Well, Black Thought & Questloves’ weekend will be anything but “low-key” as the famed Roots Picnic hits the Festival Pier this Saturday and Sunday.  Black Thought told me the highlight of his musical career was playing on the Art Museum steps, which The Roots will do again this 4th of July!  Questlove as always was great!  He told us on the Red Carpet about his favorite night in music EVER was when he “woke up in Prince’s house and Stevie Wonder was playing his whole catalog on the piano and in the crowd was Penelope Cruz and Selma Hayek.”  Talk about a party I would love to attend!

There were three awards given out last night.  The Mayors award was given to Steve & Christine Graham from Graham Partners.  The second was presented to Senator Vincent J. Hughes and his wife actress Sheryl Lee Ralph.   The last award honored The Roots who will have a Mural painted of them on South Street!  They spoke about how much this meant to them and how their careers, like many other Philly Musicians, started on South Street.  To learn more about their mural click here.  Finally, Philly’s legendary DJ “The Geator with the Heater”, Jerry Blavat, showed up and invited everyone on the dance floor to  get the party started!

What a great event!  Please support the Mural Arts by visiting their website: http://muralarts.org/