Veterans

ter of the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center (CMCVAMC), Mural Arts Philadelphia and the City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, according to a release.

The mural was created by Mural Arts Philadelphia artist James Burns, who collaborated with veterans over a year, through interactive workshops and writing workshops led by Warrior Writers at Impact Services. The result is a “powerful statement about the veterans’ lives before, during, and after their service.”

The Veterans Empowerment Center members, as well as several CMCVAMC staff members, served as models for the mural, which also depicts Burns’ father and Crescenz, both Vietnam veterans.

“We told him what we were feeling and he tried to make it visual. He represented our internal wounds outwardly,” Allen said of Burns.

Fern Billet, the center’s Congressional Liaison, pointed out that art is frequently a source of healing for veterans.

“The Vet Empowerment Center, which is a psychosocial recovery group at the VA, do a lot of activities to meet their goals of healing. They were doing a lot of projects around art. They worked with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, studied paintings, did self -portraits. Somebody said ‘let’s learn more about the murals around the city of Philadelphia,’ so they went on tours and learned more and that led to the idea of the group working with Mural Arts and doing a mural somewhere in the city. Part of Mural Arts is a division called Porch Light, which works specifically works behavioral health groups and art as a way of healing,” Billet explained.

“A group has to apply to be approved for a mural. The Veterans Empowerment Center put in an application and they were approved for a mural. Initially it wasn’t clear where the mural was going to be but I felt very strongly that the mural should be on our medical center, and we were lucky enough that that’s exactly what happened.”

Porch Light, a program of Mural Arts Philadelphia in partnership with the City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, is dedicated to strengthening community wellness through handson artmaking with individuals who have experienced trauma, the release explained, adding that “the program is a perfect pairing with veterans, many of whom are recovering from mental health issues, including PTSD. Participation by the veterans in the mural project was a goal set by the group as part of their road to recovery and wellness.”

The project may have begun as therapy but quickly became much more than that, Allen noted.

“We collectively came up with the ideas after looking at murals around the city,” he said. “The artist has worked with different levels of mental health recovery programs, if you will, and we were a part of one of them. I think the main idea was to do it as therapy but it evolved into this bigger than life project. Some of our innermost feelings can be seen in a visual. One of the strong points of the project is that it was such a close-knit (effort) between the artist and the veterans … not only getting the mural done, but for us, focusing on something other than the daily struggles we go though by focusing on other projects.”

A tree was removed on campus to make room for the mural, Billet said.

“Because we’re a federal property we had to get approval and there were quite a few steps. But everybody that has seen the mural has said that it’s beautiful. There’s been nothing but positive good will flowing from this mural,” she said. “And the important thing to remember is that this is all veteran driven. It’s not coming from staff or leadership. The veterans are all patients; they come here for physical care and mental health care.”

The Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center is located at 3900 Woodland Ave., Philadelphia.