Google Helps Philadelphia Mural Arts Program Preserve Trove of Its Works Online
By KYW tech editor Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- You can now point and click your way through some of Philadelphia's most stunning murals.
It's the latest addition to the online Google Cultural Institute, an effort by the digital info company to capture significant artworks for all the world to share.
And now, Philadelphia's signature street art is part of that catalogue.
"The idea is that people can get very up close in the photos and see details they might not be able to see otherwise," says Nicole Steinberg, with Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program ("MAP").
She says that one of the slideshows is a visual history lesson of MAP's thirty-year portfolio of public art. Another slideshow gives a detailed tour of last year's project, Psychylustro, "which featured episodic landscape paintings on the railway corridor between 30th Street and North Philadelphia Stations."
With Google, you're now able to see the landscape and the artwork from outside the Septa rail car, gaining perspective on the mural's bold swaths of lime, magenta, and orange, with views near and far.
What was designed to be fleeting is now preserved forever.
"We're really hoping that people feel inspired by the artwork and that they feel like they might want to come to Philadelphia to see the work in person," adds Steinberg.
The Mural Arts Program joins the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of the Google trove.