Meg Fish Saligman (BFA ’87)

Philadelphia

Meg Fish Saligman has garnered international recognition for her work as a public artist, in particular as a muralist. Using a variety of media, she is known for her collaborative process and intricate designs, which bring new life to existing architecture.

Born in Olean, NY, Saligman earned her BFA in Painting from Washington University in 1987. She painted her first mural in Philadelphia in 1989, and has since received numerous commissions resulting in large-scale public works of art. Her projects include Common Threads, one of Philadelphia’s best-known landmarks; Once in a Millennium Moon, a 30,000-square-foot mural in Shreveport, La.; and Fertile Ground, the largest public art project in the history of the city of Omaha, Neb., and a fresco on a theatre façade in Mexico City, Mexico.

In her work, Saligman depicts observations of community and the cycle of life. She has developed a system that makes it easy for community members to participate in the public art-making process by helping paint the murals themselves. Currently she is focused on creating public art that reflects upon and advances the interactive era, integrating traditional painting techniques with LED light, glass, and projection.

In 2006, Saligman was featured in Public Art Review as one of ten muralists nationally who has been influential in the past decade. That same year, she received Philadelphia’s Visionary Artist Award from the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. She also has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the Leeway Foundation

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