Designing Art for a Hopeful City

Lynette Brown-Sow, vice president of Marketing and Government Relations, described Philadelphia as a city built on diversity where many different views come together to create a shared vision of hope. She was among business and community leaders who were invited to use art to express what makes and keeps a city hopeful. Her artwork is among the pieces displayed in Defining a Hopeful City Through Art, an exhibition that runs June 26 through August 29 on the 4th floor, northwest corner of City Hall. Brown-Sow, a lifelong Philadelphian not formally trained as an artist, created a piece titled, City of Hope. “I built my City of Hope out of different colors, materials, symbols and textures and brought them together to mirror the diversity of Philadelphia and illustrate that with a shared history and a shared vision of the future, our differences can bring us together rather than set us apart,” she says in her artists’ statement. “Like the infinite circle of a rounded stool, knowledge and wisdom come from all around us, and we become our wisest selves when we open our eyes, minds and souls to the wisdom of others…. Together, and with the roots planted by generations before us, we have reason to be hopeful…”

The business and community leaders were originally asked to create the artwork for the annual Hopeful City gala held November 2013, which supported BuildaBridge International, a nonprofit organization that uses art to bring hope and healing to children and families in crisis. The City’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, and BuildaBridge International are exhibit sponsors.