After a national search for a new executive director, Mural Arts Philadelphia has announced its incoming leader.
Emily Mello, a veteran museum curator and educator, will take the reins from the organization’s longtime director and founder Jane Golden on Sept. 1. Mello most recently worked as the senior director of learning and public programs for the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and has also held leadership roles at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Simone Leigh Foundation and Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.
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Though she is currently based in Providence, she will be moving to Philadelphia for the job.
“I’ve known about Mural Arts for a long time,” Mello said. “The organization has been an inspiration to people in every city I’ve worked in. … I’m really excited to work with a team that brings so many skills and experiences to this work that requires such diverse approaches to community and to art.”
Golden, who founded Mural Arts in 1984 to provide graffiti artists with a sanctioned public canvas, will remain executive director until Aug. 31. She will also work as a consultant through the end of the year to help Mello transition into the role. In a statement, Golden said she welcomed her successor “with optimism that the organization will continue to inspire and deepen its impact under her leadership.”
While Mello acknowledges that most of her background is in museums, she sees overlaps between her past work and Mural Arts’ mission and programming. She is especially keen to oversee and strengthen the organization’s restorative justice program, which brings art classes to SCI Phoenix and provides apprenticeship opportunities to people returning from prison. Restorative justice has informed much of Mello’s work, particularly at the New Museum. During her 2015-2022 tenure, Mello launched Project Reset, a pre-arraignment diversion initiative that offers low-level offenders in Manhattan an alternative to prosecution. Participants attend workshops and art therapy, leaving the program with their arrest record sealed.
Mello is also interested in “art as health,” pointing to Mural Arts’ collaborative Porch Light program with the city’s behavioral health and intellectual disabilities department as an example of that principle in action.
“Art is a place where people can give expression to things that they are struggling with,” she said. “And also find a way to connect with others and find multiple resources in addition to art.”
The incoming executive director says she’s considered moving to Philadelphia “often” in her career, citing its excellent arts and food scene. (She just visited the BlackStar Film Festival, and is excited to dine at Tabachoy.) While Mello is still searching for a place to live — she’ll be here permanently by Sept. 1 — she already sees a space for her here.
“I’ve always thought of it as a place, a city that you can call home, rather than a lot of cities that feel like they have a lot of transience to them,” she said. “I like that there are ideas that come in and out of Philadelphia, like any major city, but it’s a place that I can imagine calling home for a long time.”
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