Catharine Park

Hello Friends! Some very exciting news to share!!!! Catharine Park will be getting a beautiful new Mural from The Mural Arts Porch Light Program and Artist Paige Smith! ... Mural Arts Philadelphia has been able to connect with Parks and Rec and Catharine Park to brighten up the space with a new mural to replace the one that was damaged last year. The concept is based around "metamorphosis" and will have a floral mural covered with biodegradable origami paper butterflies made with individuals at behavioral health facilities across the city. The butterflies will ultimately melt away with some rain to reveal the final mural. (Mural Arts will help with power washing if necessary!) Please join us in the park this Thursday for kid-friendly games, treats, and butterfly-making. We are working on a final design and will have images and petitions there for neighbors to sign in support of the project. Hope to see you all there!

Apologies for the Big Belly mess! A 311 complaint has been filed...hoping they will take care of this today or in the next day or so. Thank you!!

Good morning! As many of you may have noticed, The big belly containers at Catharine Park have gained a companion, albeit an illegal one. Someone left a steel barrel there...and of course it rapidly filled and is overflowing. In addition to that, folks think the area behind the park is a cool place to dump their demo & landscaping debris! I have filed a 311 complaint to have it all removed! Any suggestions on how to confront illegal dumping?? We work hard to maintain the pa...rk & keep it clean & safe for those who use it! We have contemplated having the Big Belly’s removed or moved to another location nearby. Thanks for your help with this!! See more

Like you, the South Philly Review cares about our park! Please take a moment to read the short article. In it, they highlight our restoration & #InteractiveMuralProject. #LoveYourPark More to come!!!

Our thanks to Grace Maiorano for reaching out, taking the time to meet with us & visiting Catharine Park!!

Summer Cleanup! During the park cleanup today, amazing new residents and passersby offered support for the park. We are grateful. From offers to get composting bags, offers to help with grant-writing for our 3-Phase Park Project, to our smallest volunteer who was eager to pick up leaves, Friends of Catharine Park are making even more great friends. #LoveYourPark #WeLoveOurNeighborhood

Come one, come all, to hear what’s happening with our wall! We’re hoping you’ll join us Monday June 18th at 6:30pm at the SOSNA office 19th & Christian We’ll talk about where things are at and what our plans are moving forward!... We are hoping to have a new mural to enhance PLAY! We’ve done some research and have exciting ideas to share...think Interactive.. But we’d like to hear your ideas as well. We expect to have a call for artists to present their vision for a mural & we’ll then have you vote on your preferences. The rendering with the most votes wins! We’re pretty excited about this and think you will be too! Spread the word, invite friends! Hope to see you there!! The Friends of Catharine Park

We still love our park but cleaning is more fun in the sun. Park cleanup has been postponed due to inclement weather. #RainRainGoAway

We love our park! Join us bright and early on May 19th as we do some spring cleaning @ 8:30am! #LoveYourParkWeek Philadelphia Parks & Recreation https://loveyourpark.org/

Here’s an update on the mural: PLAY has been restored! With thanks to neighbors, our Friends group, our original mural artist, Kevin Broad, & former SOSNA Pres., Gus Scheerbaum things are falling back in place.... The Friends group engaged in communication with Max Glass in an effort to have things resolved. On Saturday, along with Kevin, Gus & some neighbors, we met with Max at the Park. Having Kevin there, provided us with a sense of the history of his mural, actually a fresco, and his artistic vision for future enhancement of it. The simple ‘PLAY’ mural was the conception of the park’s designer. The meeting was positive, informative & it was a great first step in getting this remediated. Max has agreed that he would have the wall restored. And would like to remain engaged in future dialogue about a new mural. The park is a public property that belongs to the community. It is owned by the city. Any changes to the park needs community buy-in & City approval. We are happy that it appears we will be able to resolve this by restoring things to the way they were. Also happy that this has the potential to turn into something incredibly positive. As was mentioned in our last post, we have already been looking into creating a new Interactive/Smart/Learning Mural for the park. Our hope is that we can move forward together and create a new mural with community input & support. That means you! Stay tuned for meeting announcements. Where we will exchange ideas, seek artistic renderings and have everyone’s voices heard!! Many thanks & Happy Spring! The Friends of Catharine Park

Unfortunately today, the wall in our humble park was painted with graffiti, without authorization. Please know that we are actively working (with the individual who contracted this non-authorized work) to have the current damage remediated. THANK YOU to those courageous community members who took immediate action to stop the unauthorized artists from completing their graffiti.... Our vision for the wall was already in progress... The Friends of Catharine Park has already contacted Mural Arts and several city offices with a detailed proposal to create an Interactive/Smart/Learning Mural in the park. The vision is to reimagine the use of outdoor space by creating an art piece that would extend the utility of the park, complement the incredible work that has already been done at other parks in the neighborhood, and potentially support the idea of an outdoor classroom for early childhood education. Prior to ANYTHING being painted, we've committed to socializing proposed mural designs with our community... this community... and allowing the community to opine on the elements. This process takes time. We want this community to have a sense of shared accountability and take pride in such a large, visible area along the bustling 22nd Street corridor. Thank you for your interest and we appreciate your support. Southwest Center City Philadelphia

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Brrrr, it is getting cold outside. We got a new sign to cover our wall just-in-time. Stop by to check it out! If you or someone you know is interested in getting involved with Catharine Park, let us know.