Art at the Airport
Location: Philadelphia International Airport
Artist: Designed and illustrated by Hagopian Arts, Printed by YouWraps
Hagopian Arts’ installation at The Philadelphia International Airport represents several of the hand-painted Eco Murals that can be found all around Philadelphia. The Art At The Airport Installation is comprised of vinyl mural prints of Hagopian Arts’ original public artwork. The Eco Mural Project is a series of ecologically themed public art pieces with two goals: to beautify blank walls and educate the public about environmental degradation. Attached to each mural is a scannable QR code which links back to the Eco Mural page on our website. There you can learn more about each Eco Mural Project and the ecosystems depicted, as well as links to environmental organizations and project partners.
Featured Eco Murals at the Airport:
Eco Mural 5: Wetlands
Location:
Davis Pharmacy
4523 Baltimore Ave
Philadelphia, PA
Wetlands are classified as an environment that is flooded by fairly shallow water, either seasonally or permanently, and feature a wide array of semi-aquatic and aquatic flora and fauna. These complex and diverse environments can encompass several familiar ecosystems found right here in Pennsylvania, including vernal pools, ponds, marshes, and swamps. Other environments classified as wetlands include bogs, swamps, mangroves, coral reefs, floodplains, and fen.
Eco Mural 2: Symbiosis
Location:
Emlen Elementary
6501 Chew Ave
Philadelphia, PA
Symbiosis is a term used to describe long-term relationships between two or more different organisms within an ecosystem. There are three categories of symbiotic relationships: mutualistic (both organisms benefit), commensalistic (one organism benefits, the other is unaffected), or parasitic (one organism that benefits at a detriment to the other organism). Like humans, organisms across every imaginable habitat cooperate to survive, reproduce and thrive.
Eco Mural 1: Kauai Coral Reef Life
Location:
One Stop Deli
4831 Baltimore Ave Philadelphia, PA
Coral reefs are environmentally invaluable: they contain more species per unit of area than any other ecosystem on earth. Stony corals lay the foundation for large reefs: their polyps produce a calcium carbonate exoskeleton that attaches to rocky outcrops around continental shelves, maintaining the shape of our shores. Corals grow into ornate colonies comprised of a hierarchy of organisms that interact through symbiotic relationships.
Eco Mural 7: Nautili
Location:
Choy Wong Kitchen
708 S 50th Street
Philadelphia, PA
Few creatures have captured the imagination of artists, writers, scientists, mathematicians, and paleontologists as much as the chambered nautilus. Nautili are classified as within Cephalopoda, the same family as octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish. Unlike their soft-bodied cousins, nautili are the only cephalopods that protect themselves with a chambered shell. This shell has two major features that have fascinated humans since the Nautilus’ discovery. These are the pearly, luminescent nacre that lines the inside of the shell, and the iconic compartments spiraling outwards in near-perfect symmetry.
Eco Mural 4: Amphibian
Location:
University City Housing
3418 Sansom St Philadelphia, PA
Amphibians are a class of cold-blooded, semi-aquatic creatures that are divided into three orders: Apoda (caecilians, or limbless serpentines), Anura (frogs and toads), and Urodela (salamanders). Amphibians are found on every continent except for Antarctica and feature some of the more bizarre and wonderful adaptations the animal kingdom has to offer. They come in a surprising range of sizes, the smallest measuring at just a third of an inch (A frog from New Guinea called Paedophryne Amanuensis) and the largest at nearly six feet long (The Chinese Giant Salamander, Andrias davidianus).
Eco Mural 6: Honeybee
and Pollination
Location:
Inner Rhythms
37 S 42nd Street
Philadelphia, PA
Bees are the main pollinators for the majority of our staple foods, and much of the grains and alfalfa that we feed to our livestock. If you’ve ever enjoyed fruits, berries, seeds, coffee, grains, nuts, chocolate, or spices such as nutmeg and peppermint, you have pollinators, and especially bees, to thank! Plants pollinated by bees benefit from greater genetic diversity and resistance to disease.
Eco Mural 3: Arowana
Location:
Red Lotus Spa
4610 Cedar Ave
Philadelphia, PA
Asian Arowanas are freshwater bony fish that are native to the lakes, slow-moving rivers, forested wetlands and swamps of Southeast Asia. Since the 1970s, Asian Arowanas have caught the attention of aquarists internationally for their captivating scales and brilliant colors. Arowanas have become infamous for being the most expensive fish in the world; however, the economy surrounding their breeding and purchase has failed to benefit their native habitat.
Learn More & Get Involved:
Hagopian Arts transforms urban landscapes through art that bridges the worlds of ecology, education, and cultural heritage. Each mural is a portal into the hidden wonders of the natural world. By blending intricate artistry with educational outreach, Hagopian Arts inspires communities to rediscover the beauty and importance of the environment they call home.
About the Eco Mural and Wild Medicine Projects
The Eco Mural Project by Hagopian Arts is an ongoing series of public art installations designed to educate and inspire action on ecological and cultural issues. Each mural is a meticulously detailed, one-of-a-kind piece, blending vibrant artistry with rigorous research. These murals transport viewers into immersive natural environments, revitalizing urban spaces while addressing pressing concerns about environmental degradation.
Within this initiative, the Wild Medicine Eco Mural Project focuses specifically on the cultural heritage of medicinal plants. Through detailed depictions and thoughtful programming, the series highlights the historical, cultural, and healing significance of plants, fostering a deeper connection between individuals and the natural world.
Visit the Eco Murals
The Eco Mural Project is rooted in the belief that reconnecting communities with nature can profoundly impact mental and physical health. These murals showcase the beauty of local flora and fauna, enlivening public spaces and encouraging residents to see their environment in a new light. This engagement inspires a sense of pride, belonging, and collective responsibility for the natural world. To enhance accessibility, each mural includes a scannable QR code linking viewers to a webpage that provides detailed information about the artwork, the plants featured, and their historical and cultural significance. These pages also honor Indigenous histories by sharing the uses, markers, and cultural associations of the depicted flora and fauna.
Community-Driven Programming and Collaborations
Hagopian Arts amplifies the impact of its murals through live events, educational initiatives, and community partnerships that engage people across generations and cultures.
Honoring Indigenous Histories and Local Ecosystems
A standout project in the Wild Medicine Series is Eco Mural 21 at Bartram’s Garden, a series of freestanding mini murals showcasing medicinal plants historically used by the Lenni Lenape people. Designed with community input, the murals feature local flora, Lenape beadwork patterns, and depictions of children on the riverbank where passionflowers grow.
Hagopian Arts conducted extensive research into Bartram’s Garden’s historical catalog to honor the Lenape people’s contributions and highlight the cultural significance of the plants. At the unveiling event on September 15th, Melaney Gilchrist, a West Philadelphia herbalist, and mindfulness yoga practitioner Nakesha Moore of Breathe Moore led workshops for community families. These sessions explored the medicinal properties of the plants while fostering connections between art, history, and wellness practices.
Through its murals and programming, Hagopian Arts creates vibrant spaces for education, inspiration, and dialogue. The Eco Mural Project bridges art and environmental advocacy, encouraging communities to cherish their local ecosystems and honor the cultural and historical ties that bind them to the natural world.
Wild Medicine: A Multidimensional Creative Experience
This live event combined public art, botanical installations, body-painted models, and performance art to merge the worlds of creativity and herbal wisdom. Hosted in collaboration with women artists, herbalists, and grassroots organizers, the event invited participants to explore the healing connections between art and nature.
Ancient Ancestral Connections
Eco Mural 18: Women’s Wild Medicine celebrates the ancestral bond between women and medicinal plants, featuring women from diverse cultural backgrounds alongside flora from their heritage. Installed at Penn OB/GYN, the mural also serves as a pilot for the Women’s Wild Medicine Initiative, a community-driven effort that highlights the healing power of native plants and their historical ties to women.
Wild Medicine Coloring Journal and Foraging Guide
In collaboration with educator and illustrator Katie Lillard, Hagopian Arts produced the Wild Medicine Journal and Coloring Illustration Booklet, inspired by the two murals created for Wild Medicine Eco Mural 15: Mugwort, Mullein, and Mallow. The booklet features twenty medicinal plants rendered in Hagopian Arts’ signature style, blending pattern, naturalism, and realism.
Hagopian Arts distributed the journal and accompanying foraging guides to schools and community organizations to introduce youth aged 3-18 to ecological awareness in both traditional and nontraditional learning settings. These resources were also shared during a mural unveiling, empowering community members to safely connect with wild plants and explore their uses in daily life.
Highlighting Interconnectivity: Eco Mural 20
As part of the Wild Medicine Eco Mural Project, Hagopian Arts created Eco Mural 20: Artelo to celebrate the interdependent relationships between plants, pollinators, and human communities. This mural was a collaborative effort with Square Roots Collective and 14 other public artists contributing uniquely to the Artelo hotel project. While each artist brought a distinct vision to the hotel’s art-filled rooms, Hagopian Arts focused on the ecological and cultural themes central to the Wild Medicine Eco Mural Project.
To expand its reach, Hagopian Arts hosted interactive workshops that engaged community members in the creative process: At Hyacinth Montessori School in West Philadelphia, children aged 6–12 participated in a painting workshop, learning about local flora and pollinators while contributing sections to the mural. This activity incorporated yoga and mindfulness practices led by Breathe Moore, blending creativity and well-being.
At John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, community members painted portions of the mural while learning about the featured species and their roles in local ecosystems.
In September 2024, Hagopian Arts partnered with the Kennett Trails Alliance and Artelo for a public mural painting event during the Hispanic Heritage Festival in Kennett Square. Using a paint-by-number system and hand-mixed colors, participants painted sections inspired by the flora, fauna, and geometric patterns of Eco Mural 20. The mural, once finalized by Hagopian Arts, will be installed in Kennett Square in 2025, further expanding its impact and reach.
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