The healing power of brushstrokes

To a North Philadelphia neighborhood, the wall will be a dramatic piece of public art. But to Graterford Prison inmate AM-8994, the mural he helped create is a quiet, personal triumph.

"For the first time in my life," he said, "I've accomplished something positive on a big scale."

The three-story mural he and about 20 other inmates have painted during the last six months will decorate a building near Ninth Street and Indiana Avenue. For now, it remains in pieces, as it was painted, on 60 five-foot-square panels of fabric.

About 25 inmates and up to 35 prison guests will dedicate the mural today at a formal ceremony at Graterford, the maximum-security state prison in Montgomery County.

Inmates will patch together 25 to 35 of the finished panels onto walls and a movie screen in the prison auditorium, using about 25 rolls of masking tape.

The mural is the first of two in the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program "Healing Walls" project, which has brought together community residents, crime survivors and convicted felons to explore the effects of violent crime.

The mural to be dedicated today in the prison reflects the perpetrator's remorse; the second mural represents the victim's pain. The two murals will be installed in the neighborhood beginning in July; the final dedication is slated for October.

Painting the mural seems to have been positive for the inmates, said Suzanne Roberts, host of Seeking Solutions with Suzanne, a cable-TV show produced by Comcast, which was cofounded by her husband, Ralph Roberts. She has contributed about $30,000 to the $75,000 project since it began more than a year ago. Roberts has a special link to Graterford because her father, Alfred W. Fleisher, helped found the institution in 1928.

"I hope what they're aiming for is to get some things out of their system," Roberts said of the inmates. "They know that they have done something horrendous to someone else. I think that they have found something in jail that is meaningful to them, that gives them an outlet."

Prison superintendent David DiGuglielmo says the mural project has given inmates an opportunity to provide a community service through public art.

"If we can help beautify the city in that way, I think it's a positive thing."

The mural provided inmates a rare chance to work together on something for someone outside the prison, said Jane Golden, executive director of the mural arts program. Collaborating with victims and community members on the mural design forced the men to "really stretch emotionally" to discuss issues of remorse, crime and consequences, she said.

"More importantly, I think they suddenly saw themselves as people who could be productive... people who could make a contribution to the life of this city," Golden said. "It has shifted the way they see themselves."

Inmate AM-8994, who is serving 16 to 32 years for sexual assault, says he has learned about self-expression, and about himself. (Out of concern for surviving crime victims, Graterford has asked that prisoners' names be withheld.)

"Before painting, I was a very introverted person and isolated," the inmate wrote in a letter. As the project unfolded, he went through a range of emotions, from depression to pride. In the end, he has learned to work better with others, he said, and has gained empathy for people both within and outside the prison walls.

"The dedication means a lot to me," he said. "I will possibly have a hand at striking good emotions in a community, where in the past my actions were largely destructive."