Maitin, Samuel

Maitin's involvements in the city's cultural life were so deep he was known as Philadelphia's "Mayor of the Arts" in his lifetime. He served on Woodmere's board of trustees and supported countless other organizations across the city, volunteering time and generously contributing designs for posters, invitations, emblems, mosaics, murals, and even building facades.

After graduating from Simon Gratz High School, Maitin won a scholarship to the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts). A painter, printmaker, sculptor, muralist, graphic designer, political activist, and beloved teacher, Maitin headed the Visual Graphics Communication Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication from 1965–1972 and served on the board of Woodmere Art Museum from 1995–2004. He received a number of awards, including a 1968 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. He created murals and other public art for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University’s Kornberg School of Dentistry, the Please Touch Museum, and Hahnemann University Hospital, among others. Maitin's work is museum collections in the United States and Europe, including the National Gallery of Art, the Tate, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and MoMA.