The community has always played a crucial role in the mural movement, especially in the earlier years. Don Kaiser and Clarence Wood's projects through the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the 1970s tended to be true collaborations with the community in terms of process and themes. Lynn Denton has worked closely with communities in long-term residencies, and her tile flower garden, Mural for Center in the Park with 25 collaborators, is typical. Vernacular languages are often employed by mural artists. Local heroes and historic moments are popular themes for community murals.
Many mural artists try to relate their subjects to the history of a specific place.
Trolley Stop is a swirling bird's-eye view of that neighborhood. Several artists have created well-crafted murals, firmly rooted in community ideals that become metaphors of urban life. Meg Saligman's Journey at the Children's Crisis Center at Callowhill and 18th is suffused with golden light and symbolically represents the stages of healing of a traumatized child. One of Patricia Ingersoll's Heritage Murals weaves together the inside and outside of the Wilde Yarns textile factory on which it's located. Her corner caryatid figures are drawn from real factory workers, and this specificity gives the work depth and resonance.