How Philly Moves covers 85,000 square feet and transforms one-half mile of repetitive, horizontal parking garage at Philadelphia International Airport into a dramatic, moving, multi-cultural and monumental "Ave atque vale” for Philadelphia's visitors and residents. It also represents a new scale of collaboration and a distinctive approach to community engagement, in that it asked movement artists of all forms and cultural backgrounds to participate in the city's official welcoming committee. The mural's origins were a response to Deputy Mayor for Transportation Rina Cutler's ambition to enliven this "gateway" to Philadelphia. Mural Arts sought artists to both solve the design monotony of the garages and to engage public interest in the airport as one of Philadelphia's most important ports of welcome. Jacques-Jean "JJ" Tiziou, who has photographed the city's burgeoning community of contemporary dancers and choreographers and traditional and folk practitioners, proposed a mural that would capture the beauty and energy of Philadelphia as a city that literally and metaphorically knows how to move. Tiziou photographed 174 Philadelphians in motion over the course of several photo sessions and then worked to create a composition comprised of 26 of these individuals that is simultaneously monumental and intimate. His design was then put in the hands of eight experienced muralists, headed by Jonathan Laidacker, who set up a public studio in Philadelphia's downtown shopping mall, The Gallery at Market East, with space donated by the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, where they translated the photographic images to paint on parachute cloth. More than 800 individuals participated in the three community paint days that took place in late 2010 and spring 2011 and the 1,504 panels of parachute cloth were installed on the parking garage facades over a four month period. The mural was completed late July 2011 and dedicated on October 12, 2011.