Pulse art installation coming (finally) to Dilworth Park

A long-awaited art piece is finally coming to Dilworth Park, bringing a surge of color to the popular—and currently very grey—Center City common space.

In July, the first part of the installation, called “Pulse,” will cast a green misty line across the park, mirroring (in real time) the green line SEPTA trolley underground, according to PhillyVoice.

The colorful art piece is thanks in large part to a $325,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation, which will fund the green portion of the installation, the Center City District Foundation announced last week. The installation, designed by sculptor Janet Echelman, has been called a “living x-ray of the city’s circulatory system,” according to PhillyVoice. The full project is meant to display additional orange and blue lines across the park, showing the underground movement of the Broad Street and Market Frankford lines.

The work was first commissioned in 2009 and its infrastructure was put in place during the construction of the Dilworth Park fountain. However, it hit a snag in its construction due to funding. The NEA contributed $20,000 to the piece last year but it still wasn’t enough to bring the idea to fruition. This new grant will bring at least the first part to life, with four-foot-tall columns of green mist, according to PhillyVoice. The future of the remainder is yet to be seen.

• Art installation to bring colorful, SEPTA-driven mist to Dilworth Park [PhillyVoice]
• With $20K grant, art installation at Dilworth Park fountain inches forward [Curbed Philly]