Our friend Ann Northrup has just completed her third mural in Philadelphia working with the senior citizens at Center in the Park, as well as students from Germantown and Lincoln high schools (image, the mural “Growing up in Germantown”).When Roberta and I stopped by while this was a work in progress, people were madly painting by number on huge sheets of parachute cloth that eventually got mounted on the wall. No way could I relate what I saw them painting to what might appear on the side of the church.
But the end result was spectacular, taking on the problem of the architecture’s peaked roof and buttresses with grace and wit, and using them as pattern and subject matter. The mural is at 110 West Rittenhouse Street off of Germantown Avenue. Northrup got assistance from her daughter, artist Diana Gruberg, in making this piece, and one of the volunteer painters was Roberta’s daughter Stella.
There are a whole bunch of new murals up, suddenly, but I haven’t made the rounds yet. Some Tuesday, when every gallery in sight is closed, maybe I’ll take a tour.
