As Germantown Avenue curves into 10th Street, the urban landscape abruptly halts. Ahead, sidewalks are embedded with colorful tiles and grassy parks are surrounded by murals on abandoned buildings.
Welcome to the Village.
The Village of Arts and Humanities is a nonprofit organization founded in 1986 which uses art to build parks, murals and a strong sense of community in North Philadelphia.
"Art is not threatening," says Sally Hammerman, a community nurse from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital who runs the Village's Health Empowerment Program. "Art invites you in [and] invites you to participate."
By involving community members in the designing and building of public art, the Village has created a place where residents passing in the streets greet each other -- and the Village's 14 staff members -- by name.
The Village collaborates with numerous Philadelphia universities. A team of Penn students organized the newly opened Craft Store, which sells artwork made by neighborhood youth. Penn and Temple students helped put together plans for a neighborhood steering committee, and Penn students volunteer at the Village through Civic House every year.
Educational programs, tree farms and house construction have all been Village projects, but the staff prefers art to administration, Environmental Programs Manager David Gooch says.
"The art is the basis for it all," Acting Teen Program Manager Melissa Talley-Palmer says.
