On January 29, 2009, the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program launched a brand new way to learn and manage information about the thousands of murals that have made Philadelphia famous. Muralfarm.org is the site where information about the growing body of public art created by the Mural Arts Program has been planted. At Muralfarm.org, an interactive online web application, pictures and detailed information about murals can be searched by artist, theme, date, location, neighborhood, and other key terms.

While registered public users of Muralfarm.org can tag favorite photographs, save searches, be notified when new murals are added, and enjoy special features such as viewing the murals in Google Earth, authorized staff members can easily and efficiently manage information pertaining to each mural through a sophisticated asset management back-end interface. Take a trip to the farm — where information about murals grows daily — to explore Philadelphia, the "City of Murals."

Each mural has been assigned an identification number, and a single record. Within that record, there are photographs of the mural (and in some cases, "before" photographs of the mural site), and detailed information about the mural. In addition to the location and the title of the mural, details include the lead artist's name, names of assistants, partners and sponsors, dates of completion and dedication, description of mural, as well as tags and themes.

In a sophisticated use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, each mural has also been geocoded. When a mural is geocoded, it is assigned a latitude and longitude on a map.

Muralfarm.org users can then search the database using geographic indicators such as an address, intersection, or neighborhood. Since each mural has been geocoded, the database automatically returns search results that include murals near those locations. Individuals can also utilize Muralfarm.org to communicate with Mural Arts Program staff, taking grassroots communications to a more sophisticated technological level. By allowing individuals to participate in and contribute to the database, the Mural Arts Program continues to engage the public in its work on an ongoing basis.

Muralfarm.org is powered by Sajara®, a product of Azavea (formerly Avencia), who partnered with the Mural Arts Program on the creation of the website. Azavea is an award-winning software development firm that specializes in design and development of web-based mapping solutions that employ GIS.

The creation of Muralfarm.org was supported by The Trustees' Philanthropy Fund of the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund and The McLean Contributionship. Blue Cadet provided graphic design services for the look of the website and the design of the Muralfarm.org logo.