Wild Medicine Eco Mural 25: South Philadelphia Community Fridge
Commissioned by JD Sports in partnership with South Philadelphia Community Fridge
Location: Universal Audenried Charter High School, Grays Ferry, South Philadelphia, PA
Date: June 1, 2026
Lead Artist: Kala Hagopian / Hagopian Arts
Photography: Daniel McGarrity Photography
Project Overview
Public Art, Pollinator Conservation, and Community Care
A monarch's wing becomes a field of luminous detail. Across the shelter, a blue-and-gold rocket rises through flowers that take the place of flame. Wild Medicine Eco Mural 25 brings the intimacy and intensity of fine-art painting into a place built around nourishment. Botanical realism, atmospheric light, metallic stippling, and rhythmic, angular linework connect the school's spirit of possibility with the living relationships that sustain plants, pollinators, and people. Close looking becomes an invitation into the artwork and the knowledge held within it.
At the heart of the project is an interconnected web of nourishment and care. Flowers sustain insects; plants, pollinators, soil, and water support the ecosystems behind our food; and people sustain one another through shared resources and attention. Rooted in the landscapes of Lenapehoking, the Wild Medicine approach connects regional plant life with documented Lenape medicinal knowledge and the histories of care associated with these plants. Here, those ideas meet the everyday work of a community fridge, where access to food, neighborhood participation, and care for the living world share a common ground.
Created by Hagopian Arts through a commission from JD Sports, in partnership with South Philadelphia Community Fridge and hosted by Universal Audenried Charter High School, the murals surround an ongoing point of community activity. Students, neighbors, and volunteers keep that activity alive. Monarch Joint Venture extends the project through original ecological writing and conservation resources, while the mural's QR code opens a path into the species, stories, and practical opportunities for involvement explored on this page.
Photography: Kala Hagopian
THE PROJECT AND ITS SETTING
The project marks South Philadelphia Community Fridge's eighth location, at Universal Audenried Charter High School in Grays Ferry. Students built its wooden shelter using repurposed gym bleachers. Materials once part of the school's athletic life now protect a neighborhood food resource, carrying student craftsmanship into the continuing life of the site.
People encounter the murals while contributing food, collecting it, or passing through the neighborhood. They may stop to study the intricate painting or carry an impression of color and imagery into the rest of their day. That openness is central to the Eco Mural Project: public art belongs in everyday life, accessible across differences of class, race, background, and familiarity with fine art. Anyone who wants to look further can follow the research and stories behind the work
A COMMUNITY FRIDGE ROOTED IN SHARED CARE
South Philadelphia Community Fridge is a volunteer-led mutual-aid initiative expanding free access to fresh, healthy food throughout Philadelphia. Its neighborhood network brings together volunteers, local grocers, restaurants, and residents to distribute produce, pantry staples, and prepared meals, including food that might otherwise be discarded.
At Grays Ferry, its partnership with Universal Audenried Charter High School goes beyond hosting the refrigerator. Students in the school's READY… SET… WORK!!! program also help maintain and stock the fridge alongside volunteers. The program offers employment preparation to young adult scholars. Their ongoing involvement extends the school's contribution beyond the shelter's construction to caring for the fridge itself.
JD Sports is a global retailer specializing in athletic footwear and apparel. As the project's commissioning sponsor, JD funded the original murals and supported the opening of this eighth South Philadelphia Community Fridge, including the refrigerator and months of food stocking. In spring 2026, JD also donated $15,000 to help stock and support the wider South Philadelphia Community Fridge network across its existing locations. Its contribution brought together fine-art public painting and practical support for neighborhood food access.
Photography: Kala Hagopian
The Artwork:
Two Compositions, One Shared Ecology
THE MONARCH AND NEW ENGLAND ASTER
On one side, a monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) rests upon a New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae). Gold, silver, and bronze metallic stippling catches the light across the butterfly's intricate wing markings. Vivid pink and yellow angular contours trace the surrounding flowers, while layered gold and green hatching moves diagonally through the background. These expressive marks create rhythm around the carefully rendered butterfly and botanical forms, holding a quiet encounter between insect and flower within a much larger sense of movement.
The aster is more than a resting place. Its late-season nectar can help sustain adult monarchs during fall migration, connecting a seemingly small exchange between insect and flower to a far-reaching journey. Enlarged through fine-art mural painting, that relationship becomes something to notice rather than overlook.
THE ROCKET IN BLOOM
The adjoining mural takes the school's Rockets identity into a botanical vision of lift-off. A blue-and-gold rocket ascends through a luminous sky as its engines and clouds unfold into flowers. Rather than decorating the scene, the blooming forms generate its movement, giving the school emblem a new expression of growth, imagination, and possibility rooted in the living world.
Inside the rocket's circular window, a small monarch and purple aster echo the larger composition on the opposite side. The detail connects the two murals across the shelter, bringing an intimate plant-and-pollinator relationship into a sweeping image of aspiration. The result is one visual story told at two scales: the life of an individual species and the larger systems of support in which it exists.
Wild Medicine:
Botanical Stories
Woodland and meadow flowers connect the mural with the botanical life of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, bringing native and naturalized plants into one painted landscape. Flowers from different seasons share the painted space, revealing relationships that would not all be visible at a single moment outdoors. Each entry below functions as a compact field guide, separating ecological relationships, Lenape plant knowledge where specifically documented, broader historical ethnobotanical or Indigenous use where it is not, and the plant's visual role in the mural.
LENAPE PLANT KNOWLEDGE AND WILD MEDICINE
South Philadelphia lies within Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape people. The Nanticoke and Lenape Confederation describes plant medicine as knowledge shaped by season, intention, respectful gathering, and responsibility to the land. These relationships inform Hagopian's Wild Medicine work, including Eco Mural 21: Bartram's Garden, Eco Mural 23: Kennett Greenway, and the Wild Medicine Plant Identification Guide & Coloring Journal, developed with contributions from Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania ethnobotanists. In the journal's foreword, Chief Adam Waterbear, Tribal Storykeeper and Director of Education for the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, reflects on stewardship across generations:
Our youth are the ones who will enjoy the benefits of our environmental stewardship—and will suffer the consequences of our environmental abuse. Their children will receive the same generational inheritance, as will their children, and theirs.”
Chief Adam Waterbear, Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania
“
His foreword also describes medicine through its benefits to mind, body, and spirit, encompassing family, stories, ceremony, and life among plants. At Audenried, that perspective resonates with young people making something for their neighbors and with a shared resource sustained through daily care. The journal carries the same invitation beyond the mural, giving people a way to look closely, learn, color, and build a personal relationship with the living world. The plant stories below foreground Lenape knowledge where it is specifically documented. Where a Lenape record has not been verified, they note broader historic ethnobotanical use without implying that use was Lenape.
1
New England Aster
(Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)
Ecology: Native to Pennsylvania and New Jersey; a late-season nectar source for migrating monarchs and native bees.
Historical ethnobotanical / Indigenous use: Preparations of New England aster have been used for fever and related ailments.
In the mural: The monarch rests on an enlarged New England aster, linking a close plant-pollinator encounter with the larger migration story.
2
Wood Lily
(Lilium philadelphicum)
Ecology: Native to Pennsylvania and New Jersey; its orange-red flowers attract butterflies and other visiting insects in open woodland and meadow habitats.
Historical ethnobotanical / Indigenous use: Bulbs have been used in poultices for wounds and bruises and in medicinal preparations associated with childbirth.
In the mural: Its open petals and upward gesture carry the movement of lift-off through the rocket's flowering forms.
3
Black-eyed Susan
(Rudbeckia hirta)
Ecology: Native to Pennsylvania and New Jersey; supplies pollen and nectar to bees and butterflies, with mature seedheads feeding birds.
Historical ethnobotanical / Indigenous use: Root and plant preparations have been used for colds, intestinal ailments, and other medicinal purposes; the plant has also been used as a dye source.
In the mural: Its golden rays and dark center create a strong visual counterpoint among the rocket's flowers.
4
Fine-rayed yellow flower,
likely Elecampane
(Inula helenium)
5
Dwarf Cinquefoil
(Potentilla canadensis)
Identification: Likely elecampane (Inula helenium); the identification remains provisional. The species is Eurasian and was introduced to North America.
Lenape use: Elecampane root is documented in Delaware/Lenape medicine as a tonic used to strengthen digestion and help clear mucus from the intestines.
In the mural: The many fine golden rays radiate beneath the rocket engine, intensifying the sense of lift and energy.
Ecology: Native throughout Pennsylvania; its small yellow flowers are visited by small bees and flies.
Historical ethnobotanical / Indigenous use: Root preparations have been used for diarrhea and related digestive complaints.
In the mural: The low, five-petaled yellow flowers repeat across both compositions as smaller botanical accents.
6
Common Evening Primrose
(Oenothera biennis)
Ecology: Native to Pennsylvania and New Jersey; its yellow flowers open at dusk, serving moths and bees, while birds feed on the seeds.
Historical ethnobotanical / Indigenous use: The plant has been used for bruises, skin inflammation, minor wounds, gastrointestinal complaints, and sore throats.
In the mural: Evening primrose extends the food-web story beyond daylight, pointing to ecological activity that continues after dark.
7
10
Bloodroot
(Sanguinaria canadensis)
Ecology: Native to Pennsylvania and New Jersey; an early-spring woodland flower whose pollen serves insects while ants disperse its seeds.
Lenape use: Known as Pekon or Pukon; documented for stomach complaints, cramps, vomiting, and warts. Its red root pigment was also used in Lenape craftwork and ceremonial painting.
In the mural: Bloodroot appears in both white and cool blue interpretations, connecting medicinal plant knowledge with color and visual transformation.
8
Flowering Dogwood
(Cornus florida)
Ecology: Native to Pennsylvania and New Jersey; its small central flowers attract insects, while later red fruits nourish birds.
Lenape use: Flowering dogwood root is documented in Delaware/Lenape medicine as part of a compound tonic used to relieve body pains and aches.
In the mural: Its four white bracts bring a woodland tree into the rocket's layered field of flowering forms.
9
Red trillium
(Trillium erectum)
Ecology: Native to Pennsylvania and New Jersey; its three deep-red petals and distinctive scent attract flies, beetles, and other small visitors, while ants disperse its seeds.
Historical ethnobotanical / Indigenous use: Rhizome preparations have been used for skin conditions including pimples and sunburn.
In the mural: The three-petaled red flowers add a darker woodland note to the surrounding botanical field.
11
Monarch Butterfly
(Danaus plexippus)
Ecology: Monarch caterpillars depend on milkweed as a host plant; adults draw nectar from many flowering species, including asters during autumn migration.
Lenape plant knowledge: Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Pitukëna in Lenape, is documented as a plant historically gathered for food in spring.
In the mural: The monarch is the central figure on the aster side and reappears in miniature inside the rocket window, linking the two compositions.
12
Sulphur Cinquefoil
(Potentilla recta)
Ecology: Established in Pennsylvania but introduced from Eurasia; its five deeply notched petals surround numerous stamens and can attract small insects.
Historical ethnobotanical / Indigenous use: External preparations have been used for sores and wounds. A Lenape-specific use has not been verified.
In the mural: The pale five-petaled flowers provide a softer counterpoint to the yellow dwarf cinquefoil and larger woodland blooms.
Hagopian Arts is committed to supporting nonprofit partners working to protect pollinators and restore ecological balance
Monarch Joint Venture (MJV) is a national conservation nonprofit advancing monarch and pollinator conservation through habitat protection, research, education, and collaboration. For Wild Medicine Eco Mural 25, MJV contributed original educational writing and a specially selected group of resources connecting the mural's monarch imagery with migration, native habitat, urban biodiversity, pollination, and the food systems on which communities depend.
"Why Help Monarchs?" and "Why Is Action in South Philadelphia So Important?" were contributed by Lily Peppers on behalf of Monarch Joint Venture. MJV also selected the nine resources in Learn More & Get Involved.
Why Help Monarchs?
Helping monarchs helps many other species, including humans!
Planting monarch and pollinator habitat in your neighborhood or community not only provides monarchs with shelter and a food source, but can provide other benefits such as stormwater mitigation and improved local pollination. Pollination is vital for our food system and economy. In fact, pollinators are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat!
Pollinator habitat also adds beauty to the landscape with its array of colorful wildflowers and the dazzling butterflies and beneficial insects of all types that it attracts. These green spaces create opportunities for outdoor learning, relaxation, and connection with nature, which are proven to support our mental and physical well-being. Plus, monarchs and humans aren’t the only ones that enjoy these habitats. Birds, small mammals, native bees, and more rely on these habitats, too!
WHY IS ACTION IN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA SO IMPORTANT?
The Mid-Atlantic region is a critical corridor for monarch butterflies from late spring through autumn. Planting native milkweed and nectar-rich perennials in your yard, balcony container garden, or community spaces provides essential breeding habitat and the high-energy fuel monarchs need as they migrate through our urban neighborhoods.
MILKWEED AND NECTAR:
Two Essential Parts of Monarch Habitat
Native milkweed (Asclepias species) is the host plant needed by monarch caterpillars. Adults depend on nectar from a diversity of blooming plants for energy. Species such as New England aster help keep nectar available late in the season. Both resources matter for monarchs moving through urban landscapes.
Photography: Kala Hagopian
From Studio Painting to Public Installation
Both murals were hand-painted on Polytab mural cloth in Hagopian Arts' Philadelphia studio. Working off-site allowed Hagopian to develop the botanical detail, intricate wing markings, and atmospheric transitions of light central to her fine-art practice.
Brushwork and airbrush build the botanical detail, luminous sky, and subtle transitions of light. Metallic stippling creates reflective detail across the monarch's wing markings, while paint-marker contours and diagonal hatching form an energetic patterned field around the realistically painted butterfly and flowers. The rocket side opens into atmospheric sky and clouds, with flowering forms carrying the upward movement. Together, realism, airbrush, stippling, expressive linework, color, and space hold distinct energies within one shared artwork.
The completed murals were installed by Kala Hagopian with assistance from Helen Harvey, Kai Williams, and John Harvey. Installation on the student-built shelter was completed June 1, 2026, with finishing touches and UV-protective sealing completed at the site.
The Eco Mural Project has grown alongside Hagopian's son, Kai. In its early years, she sometimes painted murals with him on her back. For Eco Mural 25, Kai actively helped with the plant and pollinator research and contributed to the design process, working alongside his mother as she developed the imagery and worked around the clock completing the murals in her studio. He also participated in the installation with Kala, Helen, and John.
THE ECO MURAL PROJECT AND WILD MEDICINE
Founded by Kala Hagopian in 2018, the Eco Mural Project brings original fine-art painting into dialogue with ecology, cultural history, public engagement, and education. Its site-responsive installations have evolved across mural walls, freestanding artworks, community spaces, and functional structures. Within the initiative, Wild Medicine explores botanical life, pollinators, cultural memory, and the relationships between human and environmental health.
Videography: Kala Hagopian
Photography: Kala Hagopian
PARTNERS AND CREDITS
Lead artist, original artwork, design, painting, and installation:
Kala Hagopian | Hagopian Arts
Installation assistance:
Helen Harvey, Kai Williams, and John Harvey
Plant and Pollinator Research, Design Development,
and Studio Participation: Kai Williams
Commissioning Sponsor:
JD Sports
Community Partner and Ongoing Food Access:
South Philadelphia Community Fridge
Host site and student-built shelter:
Universal Audenried Charter High School; ongoing fridge care also involves students in READY… SET… WORK!!! alongside SPCF volunteers
Ecological Education Partner:
Monarch Joint Venture
Original Educational Writing and Resource Selections:
Lily Peppers on behalf of Monarch Joint Venture
Additional Educational Resources:
Pollinator Partnership, Xerces Society, and Journey North
Photography:
Kala Hagopian; selected JD Sports photographs by Daniel McGarrity Photography
Related Projects
Wild Medicine Eco Mural 24:
MKE | Living Systems
Wild Medicine Eco Mural 24: MKE | Living Systems is a site-responsive public artwork created for Art Intersection MKE, an outdoor community space where public art, ecological systems, and green infrastructure are intentionally integrated on formerly vacant land.
The composition is built directly from native plants growing on-site, including purple prairie clover, coneflower, bee balm, black-eyed Susan, and prairie spiderwort. A rusty patched bumblebee anchors the work, emphasizing the relationship between plant and pollinator and the idea that health exists through interdependence across land, bodies, and community systems.
Wild Medicine Eco Mural 23:
Kennett Greenway
Wild Medicine Eco Mural 23: Kennett Greenway transforms the Kennett Greenway into a living outdoor gallery where art, ecology, and community converge. Created in partnership with the Kennett Trails Alliance and Square Roots Collective (SRC), the project weaves together fine art, environmental education, and cultural storytelling through four free-standing murals, a companion Wild Medicine Plant Identification Guide & Coloring Journal, immersive community workshops, and the culminating Wild Medicine Unveiled event.
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Wild Medicine Eco Mural 21: Bartram’s Garden
As part of the multi-year transformation of the 56th Street Corridor, Wild Medicine Eco Mural 21: Bartram’s Garden celebrates the essential roles of local pollinators and medicinal plants, many of which were traditionally used by the Lenni Lenape people. This Eco Mural Project consists of eight free-standing mini murals located at the 56th Street Gateway, where Lindbergh Boulevard meets 56th Street near the lower entrance to Bartram’s Garden. Each mural is meticulously hand-painted and mounted on custom-fabricated structures that complement the artwork’s unique shapes and borders, offering a dynamic visual experience.
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Wild Medicine Eco Mural 20: Artelo
Our delicate ecosystems rely on the intricate relationships between plants, pollinators, and human communities. Wild Medicine Eco Mural 20: Artelo celebrates this mutual interconnectedness through a vibrant depiction of local flora, fauna, and their vital roles within the environment. Created by Hagopian Arts in collaboration with Square Roots Collective (SRC), this mural embodies the synergy between nature, culture, and community.
LEARN MORE & GET INVOLVED
The following nine educational resources were selected by Monarch Joint Venture for Wild Medicine Eco Mural 25. Explore native pollinator planting, monarch migration, and opportunities to participate in conservation. Special thanks to Lily Peppers.
CREATE POLLINATOR HABITAT
Native milkweeds provide the breeding habitat monarch caterpillars require; a diversity of nectar-rich flowers helps support adult butterflies and other pollinators throughout the growing season.
Gardening for Monarchs | Monarch Joint Venture
Learn the basics of designing and planting a garden that supports monarch butterflies.
Plant Milkweeds for Monarchs | Monarch Joint Venture
Explore native milkweed species appropriate for the Northeast and the Philadelphia region.
Northeast Pollinator Garden Recipe Card | Pollinator Partnership
A practical guide to creating a pollinator garden with flowers across the growing season
Plants for Monarchs | Xerces Society
Find regionally relevant plants for monarch habitat.
Eastern Broadleaf Forest Planting Guide | Pollinator Partnership
Explore regional planting recommendations and habitat guidance.
Host Plants for Moths and Butterflies in DE, NJ, and PA | Pollinator Partnership
Learn which local plants support moth and butterfly life cycles.
LEARN ABOUT MIGRATION AND PARTICIPATE IN COMMUNITY SCIENCE
Monarch Migration | Monarch Joint Venture
Learn about the monarch's multigenerational migration across North America.
Monarch Migration Tracking | Journey North
Explore seasonal movement and contribute sightings to a community science project.
Community Science Opportunities | Monarch Joint Venture
Explore ways to contribute observations that help researchers monitor and protect monarchs.