In North Philadelphia, around Germantown and Lehigh Avenues, an entire neighborhood has been repainted in bright, fun colors as part of the city’s Mural Arts Program. We got a chance to walk through with the artists, Dre Urhahn and Jeroen Koolhaas, who are most well-known for their work painting the Santa Marta favela in Rio de Janeiro. The project was called Philly Painting, and Dre and Jeroen who are originally from Holland, were invited to be artists in residence in 2012. Their work goes beyond aesthetics however, their ultimate goal is to use art to transform and revitalize neighborhoods. Though they were invited by the mayor of Philadelphia, it was important to them that those in the neighborhood “understand the reasons why we’re here,” Dre tells us. Dre and Jeroen’s project in Santa Marta, Rio de Janeiro (photo source: favelapainting.com) 54 storefronts were painted as part of Philly Painting To that end, the partnership with Dre… Read More