Hey they are having a painting party!

IN 1984, THOUSANDS of walls around the city had been defaced with tags such as Earl, Pez, SUB, Electro, Crank and Knife.

Beleaguered Mayor Wilson Goode declared an "amnesty" to wall writers if they would join the city's Anti-Graffiti Network.

Today the network, now the Mural Arts Program, has spread to truants and other delinquents, shelters and prisons; has breathed new life into drug-plagued neighborhoods; and has become a model for other cities.

The Mural Arts Program's 20th-anniversary celebration begins this month with 12 mural dedications, mural tours and other events.

With 2,450 murals throughout the city, "We have put Philadelphia on the map as the 'Mural Capital of the World,' " says muralist Jane Golden, who founded and still runs the mural program.

Over the years, 25,000 young people have participated. This year there are 1,100, but in some years, heavy budget cuts whittled the number to as few as 30, Golden said.

Painting pictures on the walls of the city wasn't on the agenda when Tim Spencer, head of the Anti-Graffiti Network, hired Golden to run an art program for the network.

"I think they felt like I probably was going to run like an arts-and- crafts program," Golden laughed.

Things were so bad then that there were graffiti clubs and graffiti gangs, she recalls.

"It was really a graffiti crisis. I remember driving around neighborhoods, and the buildings were no longer visible. The graffiti was layered on top of each other. It had become sort of analogous to hopelessness, blight and poverty."

Graffiti hasn't disappeared, Gol-den concedes, but "it's nothing like it was."

The mural program couldn't make the changes alone. Philadelphia Green and community-development groups also have played a large part in restoring neighborhoods, she said.

"I have seen Norris Square change from being an area filled with blight and drug dealers to a neighborhood that is flourishing, with gardens and murals. Working in Mantua and Strawberry Mansion I have seen the same thing."

Golden lucked out when Spencer provided her an assistant, "this very notorious graffiti worker named Tran.

"Through Tran, I was able to infiltrate the graffiti world and meet some of the graffiti writers and get them involved.

"They showed me their sketchbooks. That's when I got it - that they had an incredible talent that was untapped.

"These guys ended up being my colleagues."

Some teach in the mural program, she said. One is a minister, another a police officer. "One of the first graffiti writers I ever met is a well-known poet. Another is a software engineer."

Almost all back then were male, and extremely resistant to picking up a paintbrush, Golden said.

Residents didn't welcome the fledgling mural crews with open arms either.

"People would say to us, 'What's art gonna do for our neighborhood,' " Golden recalls. Residents were used to being ignored, she said

But Golden persisted. "Eventually, people would invite us back to a community meeting or a block meeting. "They wanted their past, where they grew up, on a wall, so their children and grandchildren could see it."

Juanita Story-Jones, president of the Cecil B. Moore and Ridge on the Rise Business Association, which is involved in the revitalization of Ridge Avenue and the creation of a new mural to be dedicated Saturday at 21st and Ridge, said murals bring "new life to the community." The Ridge Avenue mural pictures Pearl Bailey and John Coltrane and mirrors the past (when Ridge Avenue was a thriving business district), the present and the future, Story-Jones said.

Besides the amnesty program, some of Golden's early crews were sent to her by the courts.

"After they did their volunteer scrub time, we could offer these kids employment painting communities or cleaning up communities."

In 1996, the mural program was moved to the Department of Recreation and renamed. It was moved to the managing director's office earlier this year.

In the late '90s, it concentrated on improving the quality of the murals, brought in some professional artists, provided internships for college-age students and expanded its after-school program to all kids.

Kids work on producing 60 percent of the murals, but the others are done by trained artists alone. Ridge on the Rise was painted by Eric Okdeh and Josh Sarantitis.

Some murals have faded over the years, and the program restores about 25 a year, Golden said.

In 1999, Mural Arts started a program called the Big Picture, seeking kids in neighborhoods with little opportunity, and in 2000 began beautifying nursing homes and other institutions.

One-third of the mural program's funds come from the city and the rest from individuals, corporations, foundations and money raised through mural tours and sale of posters, postcards, note cards and a mural book.

"In 2003, we received a grant to work with kids all over the city who are truant and in trouble with the law, called Artworks," Golden said.

Over the last year, she said, the program has began working in city shelters and prisons.

The program's headquarters is in the Thomas Eakins House, 17th and Mount Vernon.