How Philly Moves: New Possibilities in Community-based Public Art was published in the special Spring Arts & Culture issue of the Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal.

This article by HPM creator JJ Tiziou discusses the story of the project, how it is continuing to transform his photographic practice and what new possibilities it hints at for the future.

Click here for the full article, or find more exciting appearances of How Philly Moves in the news in the press section.

One of the critical things in the How Philly Moves photo sessions is making sure that every participant is completely comfortable, so we started with fewer participants on Friday to leave room to iron out any kinks and make sure that logistics on-site were running really smoothly.

Below are a few images from that first group, and even with just this first set you can start to get a sense of what a beautiful range of people shared their movements with us in that amazing weekend. Hope that you enjoy them…

And, in case you missed it, here’s the recap video from the shoots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjxW7-cgdxA

Here is the first glimpse of images from the Fall 2011 shoots.

While the bulk of the photo sessions happened over a Friday/Saturday/Sunday, we did a little advance session on Thursday as we got set up in the space in order to be able to include some aerial performance, which took a little bit of extra rigging.

(Maybe the next incarnation of HPM will be able to include underwater dance, fire dance etc, but one thing at a time!)

And, just in case you missed the other post with Ellen Reynolds’ great video showing where these images are coming from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjxW7-cgdxA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjxW7-cgdxA

The fall 2011 HPM photo sessions were amazing.

Over the course of three intense days, over 140 individuals were photographed.

This is the kind of experience that they reported having:

I just… I mean… I can’t even begin… I just… I… wow. Today may have been the most liberating 4 minutes of my life thus far and I want to thank you for that. I felt safe, I felt celebrated and beautiful. Thank you so much for creating that space and forum for a total loss of inhibition! I mean… really! Still smiling!

These events happened thanks to you:

The funding for this incarnation of How Philly Moves came from over 600 individuals who backed the project on Kickstarter, and the individual donors and monthly sustainers of JJ Tiziou Photography. This is the first significant realization of JJ’s dream of sustainably creating positive imagery through community-supported photography.

What comes next?

Over 14,000 images were generated. The participants and Kickstarter backers will get the first look at them, and you can find them trickling out on the How Philly Moves page on Facebook.Keep an eye on the news feed for more updates.

The images will be available for prints, and potential inclusion in future public art projects. (If you’ve been by Philadelphia International Airport lately, you may have noticed the parking structures at Terminal A&B looking pretty bare…)

How Philly Moves is a community project of JJ Tiziou Photography. Where it goes next will depend in part on you. Sign up for updates; if you have suggestions, potential community partnerships, leads on funding sources, etc… don’t hesitate to let us know!

When you’re next flying through the Philadelphia International Airport, keep an eye out for a special new permanent exhibit installed in the Terminal B/C baggage claim.

The official title of the exhibit is “The How Philly Moves Mural: A Public Art Project by the Mural Arts Program and Photographer Jacques-Jean Tiziou”.  It features 162 images from the 2008 and 2010 How Philly Moves community dance photo sessions.

Accompanying the photographs is a great video piece by the Big Picture Alliance that documents the making of the mural, and previews their upcoming feature documentary Gateway.

In the image below, three How Philly Moves participants and a friend check out the image array during the evening of the mural dedication.

The airport’s exhibitions program has a press release where you can read more about it, but better to check it out in person next time you fly. And remind your traveling friends to keep an eye out for it when they pass through!

This little portrait series highlights a few of the people who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to help make the mural a reality.
Images courtesy of JJ Tiziou Photography.

Anna Drozdowski of Ladybird, ever an amazing juggler of many things, was instrumental in facilitating the 2010 shoots and generally being an amazing resource to JJ Tiziou Photography.

Jenn McCreary is Director of Communications at Mural Arts, and together with Cari Feiler Bender of Relief Communications, they’ve helped the project get such great press.

Jay Wahl ran the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts at the Kimmel Center, which included the How Philly Moves projection project on Broad Street. (see a video of it here!)

Rina Cutler, who serves as the city’s Deputy Mayor for Transportation & Utilities, had the inspiration of using the parking structures at the Philadelphia International Airport to create a massive mural serving as a new gateway to the city.

Andrew Stober, who works with Rina, was instrumental in facilitating the logistics between all of the different parties involved in making such an ambitious project a reality.

Gary Steuer, Chief Cultural Officer at the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, was one of the many enthusiastic supporters of the project.

Chris Petrowski is a surveyor who created the three-dimensional models that allowed photographer/designer JJ Tiziou to transform his images into something that the muralists could paint while compensating for perspective distortions inherent in the challenging surfaces of the airport parking structures.

Seth Turner is the Director of Operations at Mural Arts, supporting the whole mural team and all of the other mural projects throughout the city. 

Before you can start a project of this scale, you have to make sure that everyone’s on the same page. Corinne Militello is one of the attorneys at Ballard Spahr who provided support to Mural Arts with their contracts and negotiations.

Maureen Weir runs things at The Gallery at Market East, where the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust generously donated vacant retail space to serve as the studio in which the mural segments were painted. This centrally located space allowed for some amazing community paint days.

Frank Morelli and the City of Philadelphia Streets Department were responsible for the survey crew who provided accurate measurements of the nooks and crannies of the parking structures.

Herman Ledger worked with Frank and Chris at the Streets Department to make sure that the survey data created an accurate 3d model of the parking garages to use in the mural design.

Rachel Kantra Beal is JJ Tiziou Photography‘s first employee- in addition to providing a lot of fantastic general operations support, she did an amazing job of organizing and running the most recent round of How Philly Moves community dance photo sessions where over 140 new participants were included in this project.

Tjai Abdullah was one of the main muralists, also serves as a guide in ever growing mural tour program.

Anthony Peel was another core member of the mural team. They’ve all spent so much time working so hard on this project…

… but we kind of love this shot of him just chillin’.

As the muralists worked, Chris Ambolino and the whole crew from the Big Picture Alliance caught it all for their upcoming documentary: “Gateway”. You can catch a preview of their amazing behind-the-scenes footage and time-lapse of the installation featured in the permanent exhibit in the B/C baggage claim, or see some preliminary helicopter footage.

Efrain Herrera, another member of the mural team, happens coincidentally to be the nephew of one of the dancers featured in the mural.

Virgilio Perez is another one of our main muralists. He and Tjai both came to Mural Arts through their Restorative Justice program, as featured in this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Thomas Walton and the core group of muralists were assisted by hundreds of people through the community paint days. Literally over a thousand people have had a hand in the mural.

You can find a couple fun shots of muralist Charles Newman in this gallery that shows some of the process of installing the mural at the airport…

… that gallery also features shots of muralist Laura Velez way high up in the lift. You can’t be afraid of heights if you’re making a seven-story tall mural!

This fantastic team of muralists was led by Jon Laidacker, who translated JJ‘s images and design into paint and coordinated the execution and and installation of the mural.

Not represented in these images but equally critical in bringing this project to fruition are all of the dancers and volunteers who made the photo sessions happen and the many special contributors who have supported How Philly Moves in its various incarnations. Special thanks are due to project manager Judy Hellman and the entire team at Mural Arts, and their partners and supporters that have enabled this ambitious project. Huge thanks to all of them, and to you.

And then of course there’s photographer/designer JJ Tiziou, caught in this shot by Jon Laidacker.

JJ’s philosophy that everyone is photogenic led him to start photographing How Philly Moves in 2008, and he’s thrilled and grateful to see this project evolve with so much community support. The most recent incarnation of How Philly Moves were funded by over 600 backers on Kickstarter and there’s a wealth of new images to share with the community. JJ can’t wait to see what happens next…

Now it’s time to celebrate! [updated]

The dedication date is set for 5pm – 7pm on Wednesday, October 12th in conjunction with Mural Arts Month. The Mural Arts Program is hosting a rooftop dance party at the airport, but an RSVP will be required. Come celebrate with us on Level 6 of Parking Garage F.  Take SEPTA to the airport, disembark at Terminals E and F where you will be directed to the party!

To save your spot:

Send an email to howphillymoves@muralarts.org to RSVP.

While you’re at it, please spread the word about the next round of community photo sessions to help us reach Philadelphians who love to move!

2008 HPM Shoot | Â photo by James Peniston / www.jepsculpture.com

We’re thrilled to announce that the next round of How Philly Moves shoots are scheduled for this fall, October 21st – 23rd. That means we’re looking for dancers – of every kind. If you self-identify as a Philly dancer, whether you dance on stage, in a social way, in your kitchen or down the supermarket aisles, then this project is about you. HPM celebrates dance of all genres and styles.

UPDATE: The signup period is for this round of photo sessions is closed, and we’re working on scheduling now. Please stay tuned. If you’d like to be involved in the continued evolution of this project, please sign up for updates…

If you’re interested in being photographed during the upcoming October shoots, sign up here, no later than October 1st, 2011. If you prefer not to be photographed, there are still plenty of opportunities to get involved and help continue this celebration. Fill out the form linked above for volunteer opportunities. Please help us spread the word via the usual social networking haunts as well as good old fashioned word-of-mouth. If you know someone who would be interested in dancing or volunteering with us in October, send ‘em our way!

This next phase of How Philly Moves was made possible largely by an overwhelming show of community support from 617 amazing backers who made our Kickstarter campaign a stunning success. HPM is an ongoing project and images from the October shoots may appear in future public and community art installations. For additional information, please see the FAQs.

The final panel in the How Philly Moves mural at the Philadelphia International Airport has been installed, and all that remains are some last little bits of touch-up. The official dedication take place sometime this fall, stay tuned for details.

Huge thanks to the Mural Arts Program and their partners and supporters for making this vision a reality! Special thanks also to the backers who are helping continue the next phase of the photo series.

See below to find out how lead muralist Jon Laidacker and the rest of the mural team have transformed photographer JJ Tiziou‘s photos and design into this monumental gateway for our city.

You have to get up early if you’re a muralist… the crew’s been on site at 7:30 every day except for when the rain’s forced them to stop…

… and by getting up, we mean you have to get *way up*, on ultra-boom lifts that take you over ninety feet in the air…

… that is pretty far up …

…where, with no fear of heights, you roll out acrylic gel to adhere the panels of painted parachute cloth one by one. The 1,504 panels that comprise the How Philly Moves mural were painted over the course of the winter by the muralists, and by many of you during the community paint days.

This shot shows the texture of the walls of the parking structure… the gaps, facets and ridges of it are unlike any wall that a figurative mural has been attempted on before that we know of…

… this technical challenge required a serious amount of precision both in JJ‘s design, and in the translation to paint by Jon and the team.

To make each of these images read from a distance, each of the 1,504 panels have to be lined up with perfect precision…

… keeping track of it all while being dwarfed by the scale of it.

While from up close, the images read as colored abstraction…

As soon as you back up a bit, you start to be able to read these massive images. There’s no one perfect vantage point for the whole thing as each figure is optimized for view from directly across it out on I-95…

… but you get a pretty spectacular view of Cesar from within garage F.

Here, Charlie delicately navigates the lift in towards one of the overhanging sections where a little bit of touch-up is needed.

Don’t worry – they haven’t been painting all 50,000 square feet of this project with these tiny little brushes…

But bringing along the appropriate paint palettes allows for a bit of on-site touch up…

… to make sure that the mural will look it’s best as it will no doubt be the subject of many a visitor’s pictures.

After all his hard work on this project, lead muralist Jon Laidacker is overdue for a vacation…

… while the editing work is just beginning for the the team from the Big Picture Alliance who are preparing a full length documentary on this ambitious project. Have you seen their trailer or preview helicopter footage?

Here’s Nyla, one of the participants of the 2008 photo sessions, in front of her likeness on the parking garage.

Nyla’s about 5’4″ tall, but that version of her in the background hits 96′ high (and that’s from the waist up, so the actual scale makes her more like an 180′ giant.

It’s obviously pretty great for her to see herself up there that big…

But even far greater is the fact that from now on, visitors to Philadelphia will be greeted by this massive set of images: a celebration of Philadelphians and the culture they create.

For more:

City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
JJ Tiziou Photography
Jonathan Laidacker

Images courtesy of Jacques-Jean Tiziou / www.jjtiziou.net