Noise #207: Portrait of a mural in Pennsylvania
Music and commentary inspired by public art with an unknown future.
A simple gift of vibrant public art envelopes the western facade at 113 West Chestnut Street, West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Local student artist Noah Burns painted the mural in 2022. He was commissioned by the anti-homelessness Friends Association, a nonprofit founded on the Quaker teaching that every human has holiness within them.
Lovely and organic, the mural has become a beloved fixture to members of the West Chester community. But it may soon vanish.
The Philadelphia Inquirer and other publication report that a new owner recently purchased the mural’s brick and mortar canvas, and that this new owner wants the artwork removed. Some community members describe feeling heartbroken at the prospect of losing a landmark that has become interwoven with their daily lives.
I know nothing about laws regarding public art on private property. And I don’t know what an honorable outcome for the artist, community, and property owner could look like. But I do know that I love this mural, and that interestingly, I fell for it in the same way I fell for late-career music by Thelonious Monk and Marian McPartland.
If you’re not familiar, Monk and McPartland are jazz piano icons from vastly different backgrounds. Particularly in their later years, both artists played with striking simplicity and sharp beauty. They said so much with so little. And they played as if they found joy within and between each note, with everything to explore and nothing to prove.
Noah Burns’ mural speaks to me in a similar voice, and I’m impressed by the preternatural maturity it displays. There’s nothing superfluous about the mural, nothing that shows off or distracts. Burns weaves together simple colors and geometric shapes into something organic that breathes and feels rich with spirit, something that gives the walls and street and sidewalk a pulse.
I wrote Noise #207 thinking about this mural as a simple gift of shining energy, and the Americana hymn “Simple Gifts” which plays through my head when I look at it. The music also channels my hope that, at the end of whatever discussions or legal wranglings happen next, the mural can somehow survive.
I hope you enjoy Noise #207:
Wishing you peace,
Michael
(Noise #207 by Michael Gallant. Copyright 2026 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)