Name/Title
CelebrationEntry/Object ID
0000.0772Description
A Philadelphia native and graduate of what is now the University of the Arts, Sam Maitin was known as the city’s “Mayor of the Arts” in his lifetime, with his works displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Academy of Music, the Settlement Music School, and multiple buildings on Penn’s campus. Maitin also taught at the Annenberg School for Communication for several years in the 1960s and ’70s, leading the Visual Graphics Communication Laboratory.
Walter and Leonore Annenberg commissioned the Celebration mural for the school in 1975. With their vibrant colors and playful shapes, the 17 pieces comprising the mural on the east wall of the school’s lobby, 20 to 30 feet above floor level, are classic Maitin. “I try to nurture the child in me—the innocence, the curiosity, the originality, the exultant primitivism,” Maitin told The Pennsylvania Gazette in 1987. He also illustrated some 20 covers for the publication.Type of Sculpture
ReliefMade/Created
Notes
Date made: 1975 & 1985Dimensions
Dimension Description
SizeHeight
30 inWidth
30 in