Symbols and Sources: The Tacony Banner Project was a series of 44 unique street banners installed along Torresdale Avenue in the Northeast

Philadelphia neighborhood of Tacony. The banners were developed by artist Mat Tomezsko from paintings created during a 12-week civic improvement-focused residency at the Tacony LAB. The banners include the actual mark-making of community members who were invited to paint during free workshops and open sessions in the studio at the LAB. The shapes, symbols, and other imagery for the paintings were abstracted from

historical, architectural, and cultural elements familiar to the community. They are presented in a new and unfamiliar way, which creates a sense of

intrigue, and tells the story of Tacony by tying the past and the future together. 

My involvement with the project was to take the original paintings and manage the translation from the paintings into the printed reproductions to create the actual banners to hang. I worked directly with Mat Tomezsko on both direct and modified translations of the paintings to re-create and expand on the original designs to include the Tacony logo for several iterations. I also worked with Mural Arts to develop printed materials that both explain and document the project for the public.  

For more information on the project and on the arts in Tacony, visit www.taconyarts.org.