By Larson McDonagh

One may think that pianos and parking have nothing in common. However, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has given a new meaning to the intersection of music and public infrastructure.

This past summer, the Lancaster Parking Authority (LPA) and Music for Everyone, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting music education, partnered to paint music-themed murals on the helix-shaped exit ramp of the Prince Street Garage. To date, three of the eight levels of the helix have been completed.

Pivot to murals

Painting murals on Lancaster parking garages originated with Keys for the City, a local program run by Music for Everyone that distributes themed, painted pianos to public areas, enabling anyone to create music.

When COVID-19 hit, Music for Everyone had to pause the distribution of painted pianos for public safety. However, the LPA and Music for Everyone decided to pivot to a different project — parking garage murals.

Because it functions as a municipal authority in Pennsylvania, the LPA had the authority to make a unilateral decision to initiate the mural project, said Larry Cohen, the executive director of the authority.

“The head of Music for Everyone said, ‘Well, if we wanted to paint murals in the parking garage, what do we need to do to get it approved?’ And I said we could approve it,” Cohen noted.

John Gerdy, the founder of Music for Everyone, said the LPA made the whole process frictionless. “It’s been great in lowering the barriers to public art,” Gerdy said. “It’s a chance for young artists and muralists who haven’t had those kinds of opportunities before to get a chance to do something like that.”

Promoting music and artists

During the past five years, the LPA and Music for Everyone have collaborated to create more than 20 murals throughout downtown Lancaster. These projects have promoted the work of Music for Everyone as well as the artists they hire.

Muralist Danica Egan, the primary artist working on the garage helix, said the project has given her work much more visibility.

“It’s been really great,” she said. “Lots of Instagram followers and people just talking like, ‘Who are you?’ [and] ‘What are you doing?’”

All the feedback from her mural and all the other murals in the city has been overwhelmingly positive, Egan said

“People are very receptive,” Egan said. “They’ve all been very supportive and excited to see these parking garages that were erected years ago getting these little face lifts here and there.”

‘A win-win situation’

Studies also have shown that public murals decrease motorist crash rates. For example, a study in Philadelphia, another city with a large mural program, found 20 fewer crashes per year in areas where murals were located.

Adding murals to parking garages is a win-win situation, Cohen said. However, he advises other organizations interested in adding art to their public structures to develop criteria with the city in which they operate.

“We were kind of running rogue with the project and taking it as it comes,” Cohen said. “But the city public art folks and the mayor have weighed in to say we should really have a mural policy. That’s something we are working on.”

As they forge forward in beautifying the city, the LPA, Music for Everyone, and Danica Egan all plan to complete two more levels of the Prince Street Parking garage in 2026.

For other parking authorities interested in painting their structures, Gerdy suggests avoiding making the process too complicated.

Parking authorities everywhere should consider adding murals to their otherwise drab structures, Gerdy said. “I highly recommend it,” he said. “It’s going to transform sections of your community. People are going to love it.”

Larson McDonagh is a Western Washington University journalism student interning with Parking Today Media. They can be reached at [email protected].