From Broad and Spring Garden’s towering Common Threads by Meg Saligman to Keith Haring’s colorful stick figures on Ellsworth Street to David Guinn’s snowy and sunny landscapes to the gray-tone pixels of Jackie Robinson in North Philly, the wealth of magnificent Philadelphia murals is a marvel of local life, the sort that leaves you saying to yourself, “Somebody should do a book about this.”

That the right somebodies have, with Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell (Temple University Press), is reason to crow. City Paper art critic Robin Rice, Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney and photographers Jack Ramsdale and David Graham joined Mural Arts Program (MAP) executive director Jane Golden to share an adventure of artistry and funding (public and private), community revitalization and political strife.

Fortunately the story -- more than 2,500 murals in the city with more to come -- is, overall, a happy one.

"Philadelphia needed to document, in a formal way, the work going on in the city," says Golden, a Los Angeles native who came here during the Wilson Goode '80s and assumed the helm of MAP, an initiative of the city's Anti-Graffiti Network. "Murals are not here forever -- 25 years is a lifetime. Muralists realize the transitory nature of the medium but that doesn't make the loss easy. So a book is a wonderful way to capture pieces of public art."

This program and these paintings -- from graffiti-writer works to established-artist endeavors -- is as powerful, as challenging and, often, as controversial a tool of community transformation as any bill or building could hope to be. Golden never thought that Philadelphia would lead the urban-center mural movement as it now does. Goode built a solid base by making the future MAP a city government/year-round program with a staff made up of people from the community. They understood graffiti artists and had a clear empathy for neighborhoods.

"A mural is essentially the painting over the sofa in the neighborhood living room," says Rice, a former muralist ("I am incapable of climbing onto scaffolding and working 12 hours a day under the summer sun; I guess Philadelphia Murals is my tribute," she explains) who made Golden's acquaintance after a series of CP stories on the transmogrifying power of graffiti. "Although you can't please every single member of the community," Rice says, "you have to give them something which most want to live with."

Like Rice, Golden was a muralist, driven by accessibility. "I like the way murals break down barriers that say where art should and should not be," she says.

Murals present, in Golden's mind, what is "authentic and distinctive about the particular community -- a public mural is a public expression." And because mural painting necessitates that communities and artists co-mingle, the neighborhood rightly feels that they are co-creators and ultimate owners of the mural.

"The mural becomes a catalyst for changes in the community, [or] certainly a main focal point," says Golden. "I am not saying that a mural is a Œsilver bullet' or a cure-all for what plagues the city. I am saying murals can show us the powerful catalytic role art can play when it comes to healing a community both physically and psychologically." Golden points to certain areas of this city -- Norris Square, parts of Strawberry Mansion, sections of Grays Ferry -- transformed in big ways by the program, in that the murals create a civic autobiography based on heroes large (Coltrane, Dr. J, Paul Robeson) and small (the community itself).

"Everyone wants good art," says Golden. "Everyone wants a quality mural. Ninety-eight percent of people want realism -- there are very few abstract murals, although we would like to do more."

For both novices and aficionados of our public masterworks, the murals are a constant comfort when traveling in our city and spying pieces like South 22nd Street's Heath Brothers/Marian Anderson mural or Tuscan Landscape at 32nd and Spring Garden. The book tells often harrowing and funny tales of chaos (Golden's first steps with over 100 graffiti writers using big brushes), commerce (decimated budgets, personal travails with major players within city government) and controversies involving the works themselves.

Rice uses, as best examples, the troubles behind Diane Keller's renderings of two South Philly icons: Franks Rizzo and Sinatra. While Rizzo remains a god to many in the Italian community, he is, to others, a messiah of menace, misogyny and racism. For that reason, the mural, towering over the Italian Market, often gets spray painted with the word "fascist."

"I personally feel ambivalent about him and would have chosen another hero," says Rice. "On the other hand, he belongs in the Italian Market and gives it an authentic Philadelphia flavor. As for Sinatra, many a community member thought his face was portrayed as dour and forlorn -- not the cheery Frank, the bobbysoxer king. A few very passionate fans wanted a younger face. But for me these discussions confirm the value of murals. The fact that people care so much shows how much they love them."

Rice and Golden have their own personal favorites of works around the city. Rice prefers the intimacy of Josh Sarantitis' Philadelphia Reads, which depicts a girl reading a book with images of Egyptian and Assyrian origin. Golden chose David McShane's Jackie Robinson for the way it captured his courage and grace. "I also like it because of what it did for that community. It has become a landmark and it helped Ms. Marilyn Porter, who owns the building, to start a daycare program; she has an African market on Saturdays, and a tot lot. It revitalized that corner."

That type of revitalization will take Golden's Mural Arts Program into the future, helping with aspects of MAP like The Big Picture, a 1,200-kid-strong after-school/summer program, which incorporates lessons on mural history and technique with opportunities to work on murals and learn from master muralists.

"My vision is not to have a million murals," says Golden. "Our vision is to work on deepening our relationships with the community."

People like Golden, Rice and their collaborators on the book, and the artists and students found on the streets of Philadelphia, continue to do that, and make challenging works. With their help, community vision has risen to a higher aesthetic plane.

Jane Golden, Robin Rice and Monica Yant Kinney will present a slide show and sign Philadelphia Murals and the Stories They Tell on Tue., Dec. 17, 7 p.m., free, Penn Bookstore, 3601 Walnut St., 215-898-7595.