Pew Arts Funds Vamonos Pa'l Monte!

A processional performance created by interdisciplinary artist Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz evokes the culture, ecology, and identity of Puerto Rico as it traverses Philadelphia’s major civic spaces. Amid commemorations of the America’s 250th anniversary, the processional journeys away from Independence Hall and places the predominantly Puerto Rican Norris Square neighborhood as its focus. Raimundi-Ortiz, a first-generation Puerto Rican American, works with curator Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw and Norris Square residents to center the experience of navigating identity between two homelands. Raimundi-Ortiz’s processional costume, designed and built by Kristina Tollefson, adds and sheds layers throughout the performance, incorporating forms from Puerto Rico’s ecology, landscape, history, and regional motifs. At each station over a nearly four-mile path, the procession adds participants and physical items for those participants to carry with them to “el monte,” the symbolic mountaintop at the end of the journey.

The total grant amount represents project funding plus an additional 20% in unrestricted general operating support.

Mural Arts Philadelphia

Mural Arts Philadelphia (formerly Philadelphia Mural Arts Program) is the largest public art program in the US. Mural Arts engages communities in 50–100 public art projects each year and maintains its growing collection through a restoration initiative. Its core program areas—including art education, community murals, and environmental justice—yield unique, project-based learning opportunities for thousands of youth and adults.