The Finding Home Project

Project Title: Finding Home

Lead Artists: Josh Saratitus and Kathryn Pannepacker

Lead Assistant: Alvin Tull

Assistant: Shelby Donnelly

Intern: Margaret Hull

Project Managers: Cheryl Durgans and Kristin Hankins

Volunteers: Fred Smill, Teamon Cox and many others

Sponsors: The Porch Light Initiative, City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

Taking place at the Arch Street Cafe on the corner of 8th and Arch Street, the Finding home project is aimed at raising awareness for the homeless in Philadelphia. I spoke with one of the lead artists for the project, Katheryn Pannepacker, who was in charge of the textile process of the project. I spoke with her as she was helping two men with their first weaving.

What was the idea behind this project?

The point of this project was to start conversations between the people who have homes and those who don't. We wanted to raise citywide awareness for this problem. Many people distance themselves from the homeless but its important to realize that we are all just one step away from being homeless. This mural is the first of its kind, a large scale textile mural painted on 150 hand-woven mats rather than a sheet of parachute cloth. We're having anyone who wants to write on the strips of fabric before we weave them. There have been alot inspirations quotes people have written. Its going to be homeless itself for a while, traveling to various sites where we'll have discussions about homelessness. But we don't want to just be preaching to the choir we want everyone from the community to come and take part. We're also going to have bracelets, like the Livestrong ones for cancer, but these will say Finding Home on them instead.