On 13th Street, an abandoned building becomes art gallery

 

The building at the corner of 13th and Kittatinny streets is not atypical for the neighborhood. Its windows are boarded shut, the house abandoned a few years ago by its owner.

 

But today, instead of brown plywood boards over the windows, the building has become an open-air art gallery, displaying colorful murals created by people in the Allison Hill neighborhood.

 

Jeff Copus, a Penn State Harrisburg student who helped put the project together, said the "community here is reclaiming some of these spaces and turning them into art."

 

The building is one of a dozen being boarded up this summer by the Pennsylvania National Guard, part of a joint effort with the city and Tri-County Community Action to try and fight some of the blight in Harrisburg.

 

Kathy Possinger, Tri-County's executive director, said the installation of the artwork on Tuesday was an "extraordinary day for our neighborhood and our city."

 

"We know a movement to fix our broken communities has to start with fixing our broken windows," she said.

 

Possinger said she hoped the artwork would inspire people in the neighborhood. The panels were painted during the Martin Luther King Jr. day of service earlier this year and the South Allison Hill Multicultural Festival in early May.

 

Organizers said they were hopeful that art panels could be installed at other buildings that are being boarded up by the National Guard this summer.

 

Mayor Eric Papenfuse, who was on hand Tuesday for the installation along with state Sen. Rob Teplitz, D-Dauphin County, said the artwork was the latest in a series of actions designed to combat blight in the city.

 

At this evening's city council meeting, Papenfuse said he plans to introduce two pieces of legislation to further that fight, calling for the creation of a city land bank and a vacant-property ordinance.