Bringing Back Fishtown’s Rotating Front Street Walls: Open Call For Artists

(Murals in photo above by Ant Carver, Benjamin J. Howard, Amberella, and the Chroma Dolls’ Ali M Williams and Kala Hagopian.)

Today I’m excited to announce that Streets Dept Walls is partnering with Mural Arts Philadelphia and CookNSolo‘s Lilah Events and Goldie Falafel to bring back Front Street Walls! And we’re looking for the next round of muralists to create on the wall.

THE HISTORY OF FISHTOWN’S FRONT STREET WALLS

For those who might not remember: In the Spring/Summer of 2016, a fast-casual Philly-based food chain, Honeygrow, moved into their then new headquarters along Front Street between Oxford Street and Columbia Avenue in Fishtown. This location was a former warehouse that when renovated left a series of walls perfect for an ongoing mural project. At that time, Honeygrow decided to celebrate artists by creating Front Street Walls and inviting artists to create on the walls, rotating the murals with new artwork when possible. And over the course of roughly two years they worked with 11 different artists. But in 2018 the project came to an end.  

Fun note–Streets Dept Founder Conrad Benner (who, by the way, was born and raised in Fishtown), actually curated the first two murals that were created for Front Street Walls 1.0. You can read more about that and more on Honeygrow’s website here.

(Mural in photo above by NDA.)

ABOUT FRONT STREET WALLS 2.0 

We want to bring this space back to life with regularly rotating murals by local artists, rotated annually. That’s our goal! Whose goal? The new owners of the building — CookNSolo’s Lilah Events and Goldie Falafel — along with curator Conrad Benner and support by Mural Arts Philadelphia!

“These walls are perfect for up-and-coming muralists! They’re in that ideal Goldie, I mean, goldilocks zone of being big enough to be a creative challenge for a new artists while being small enough to still be possible to create for your first mural. We want to use these walls to center the work of up-and-coming Philly artists. I can’t wait to get started!” -Conrad Benner

So, in the spirit of the original concept for Front Street Walls, we’ll be rotating four of these mural walls annually with new artworks from Philly artists. Starting this June with Front Street Walls 2023.

(Murals in photo above by Evan Lovett and Sean Aye.)

If you’re an artists who’s interested in creating a mural with us, please read more and apply here! Application is open for one week only, closing Tuesday, March 28th, 2023.